Let Jesus be your ally

What does it mean to be an ally?  Do I need one in this world?  Do I need to be one? I keep hearing the word echo like some holy grail.

Ally; 
to unite formally, as by treaty, league, marriage, or the like

To be noted, the word ‘ally’ forms the basis for the word allegiance. Interesting. And, well, when you put it that way….it sounds more serious and less like some passing fad to aspire to.

It causes me to think. What side am I on? I may be asked all day long, am I team peanut butter or team jelly? Team stay or go, team yes or team no? Team left or team right?

In most areas of life you could probably take a stance one way or another.
But seriously, whose team should I be on? Which if my neighbors is more right about the state of the world, or the state of more local affairs? My head starts to ache and my heart starts to pull, back and forth, or firmly one way. Either way, it takes its toll. I weigh the options, maybe count the cost. I decide with firm vigor, or by quiet default.

But what about this consideration? What if Jesus was my one and true ally? He’s the friend that sticks closer than a brother, but what if I actually chose Him, again and again. What would that look like? To choose him more than any man or idea. Truly, Jesus.

What would that look like? 
What would it look like if I really let myself be Christ’s ally in all ways and in all things?

Maybe it would look less like drawing my own lines in the sand, and more like falling in line with ones He already drew. 

Maybe it would look less like taking sides, and making teams, and more like being decidedly and firmly on His. 

Maybe it would mean consulting Jesus for His opinions more than consulting my neighbor for his. 

Maybe it would look more like loving the orphans and widows, seeing the rejected, feeding the homeless and the spiritually hungry as well those who are physically, and less like loving the world or systems that break them. 

More like telling the truth and less like telling lies or excuses.

It would look like unity with the Father and His Divine character, and less like unity with any one man. Not following a path or way of my own engineering, or sticking to my own ideas, or ideals or those structures are built by man.

I’m not talking about compromise. I’m talking about no compromise, and holding to the truth that is Jesus.  That has always been Jesus.

Where I give Him my ashes and let Him make them something beautiful. Not where I cling to the ashes and ask Him call them beautiful, or somehow change the definitions. 

Letting Jesus by my ally means finding His righteousness and seeking forgiveness for anything in me that doesn’t reflect it. 

It would look like being married more to Him than anyone or anything else, including myself.  Not just to the world or even the church as it looks now, but straight and directly to Him.  

It would look like being connected deeply, daily, and personally to our precious Savior, and like being the bride that we are supposed to be- with many talents and different callings. But united in this one purpose: to see His name glorified on the earth. 

You don’t need to know or ask or seek what anyone else thinks about your life, your decisions, or your thoughts more than Him. Don’t just ask others. Ask the Lord.

I mean we can talk about anything, if you want or need to. I’m here to listen and love the way Christ ask us to. And I’ll try to be an ally to the Jesus that loves you more than I do. I’ll listen to you and what you’re saying, but I’ll also really try to keep an ear to Heaven and see what it is that God is saying, too.

I’ll love you the ways He tells me, as best as I ever can. It’s not my job to point out your weaknesses or failures or anyone else’s, either. It’s my job to help carry you to Jesus, in spite of or because of, and certainly with all of those things. It is my job to help point you closer, or even sometimes to help carry you, ever closer to Jesus.

It’s my job to do that personally for myself, too. One that I fail at often. God help us, to remember and return.

For we tend to judge one another in order to distract from our own faults, anyway. I have plenty of my own shortcomings and failings. I need to keep asking Jesus to consult and help me all about my own.
For these imperfections, these fault lines, they just keep showing up. So I’m going to keep crawling up on the altar myself.

Care to join me?

Why don’t we both go talk to Jesus. 
Ask Him what He really thinks.
About us. About our situation. About our interactions . About all of it.
Let Jesus be our ally. Ask Him for His opinion, for His Lordship, without clinging to whatever it is I’m holding. To just one thing or the other.
But to cling more tightly to Him, in Love and commitment. And then to hold others loving in our other hand, in an attempt to lovingly help reunite them with their very loving savior, at every turn.
Leading myself first and then others towards Christ.

We all might be surprised with what happens next. But in a very good kind of way.. Let’s ask Him to reveal Himself to us, His love, His truth. I don’t know His time schedule, and when it will happen that He shows us certain things.  But I know He can do it, and when we ask Him, He will.  Let’s let him.  
As much as I love you friend, let’s both let Jesus be our One, true and forever ally.

He knows what and how and where and when to do it, all.

If we’re both really trying to line up with Jesus, I think we’ll find that we’re already on the same team. I want to be with Him, wherever He’s going. I know that He’s Good enough to lead us and love us there, throughout all of this life. And on to the next.

Let’s go, Team Jesus.