Jesus Over Everything: Uncomplicating the Daily Struggle to Put Jesus First

by Lisa Whittle

WE ARE BORN HOMESICK, EVERY ONE OF US. —LORE WILBERT

The truth is, I can’t choose my way over Jesus’ way anymore because I can’t afford the scars.

A Jesus-over-everything lifestyle is a Jesus-take-over-me-and-my-lifestyle so I don’t ruin my one precious life. But even more than that, it’s the understanding that the priority of Jesus brings order to the chaos of our lives, a job only God is big enough to do.

We beg God for help in the midst of a life with a mixed-up order of priorities and wonder why things aren’t working; yet when we put Him over all the things on our list, myriad complications fall away.

Before Jesus can be over everything, we have to allow Him to remove from our lives what has thus far only complicated them.

We are born homesick, every one of us. We who live in this fractured world have eternity written on our hearts; we are longing to be home and are digging the tent pegs of our lives in as deep as we can get them until we arrive on eternity’s shores.4

And in all of this, I’m reminded of the famous verse, Joshua 24:15: “Choose today whom you will serve,” and Joshua’s own determination: “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (ESV).

He was reminding them of the only way their lives would work from that point forward even as they lived in the blessed promised land.

“‘All right then,’ Joshua said, ‘destroy the idols among you, and turn your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel’” (v. 23).

THEIR JOY WILL BE IN DOING WHAT’S RIGHT AND BEING THEMSELVES, AND NOT IN BEING AFFIRMED BY OTHERS. —GALATIANS 6:4 TPT

In today’s culture our internal personal battles are over whether to pretty up our real.

Jesus drew people in because He was real, and that is the real attractiveness. Our true appeal will always be our truth lived out.

But it’s time to grow out of our obsession with ourselves and pursue identity with God, who created us, who cannot contradict His very nature to be exactly who He is. Self-focus has broken us in our reluctance to lift our gaze.

He had beautiful strength. − He was tempted and didn’t give in to it: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 NKJV). • He had beautiful self-control. − He denied himself in order to do what God wanted:

“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42 NKJV). • He had a beautiful witness. − He developed a respectable reputation: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52 NKJV). • He was beautifully gracious. − He was humble: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with

God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5–8 NKJV) • He was beautifully bold. − He took His appointment seriously and spoke the truth: Fo...

ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. (1 Timothy 2:5–7 NKJV) • He was beautifully honest. − He cried and was real before God: Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, wi...

godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 5:7–8 NKJV) • He was a beautiful leader. − He was the ultimate example and went first: This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:19–20 NKJV) • He was beautifully empathetic and kind. − He could have pulled rank, but he didn’t: Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, th...

in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, ...

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;

who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:21–24 NKJV)

“The authenticity that really matters is living in accordance with the genuine human being God is calling you to become.”

Real is the best pretty because it doesn’t ask you to lie.

Being real is a gift we give to others, yes, but it is also a gift we give ourselves. It releases us to be simple. We get to be who we are.

Choosing real is choosing Jesus because it’s trusting His creative instincts that we were made good.

We may have hidden our real our whole lives, but one encounter with God and we can be inspired not only to be honest about

who we are but also to change where we need to change.

choose you, just as you are. You don’t have to be pretty or pretend in front of Me. I already know.

If God

accepts our real self, there is no one left to matter.

I love Jesus for the same reason. At every stop on the map of my life, He has been the safe place for me.

I am safe with Jesus.

There is no one safer than Jesus. No worry of betrayal, no worry He will turn His back and walk away. He’s never told a thing I’ve told Him. He’s never been absent

when I needed Him most. We may never feel safe with anyone else, but we can always feel safe with Jesus.

And in that place of comfort, we show people the character of God and lead them to the One who truly shelters and heals.

It is always the love that calms the most afraid, draws in the skeptics, brings back the prodigals, and changes the hardest hearts. Judgment can never do that.

Fear keeps us from being able to see people for who they really are and give them the benefit of the doubt for who they can become through the power of Jesus Christ.

(One of my favorite things about God is how He died for the collective of us yet created us, loves us, knows us, gifted us, cares for us all, and saves us individually.)

We judge because we recognize in others what we don’t like in ourselves.

When someone is unlovable and we love that person anyway, we are shadowing God. This is what being a Jesus follower means.

We may think loving someone is about them. But, ultimately, it’s about Him.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16 NIV).

It’s about you being loved enough (you

are).

Sometimes holding our tongues is the most loving thing we can do.

Later Jesus would speak, but at this moment, He spoke loudly through silence.

but to inspire us to follow His lead. There come times when we need to speak on behalf of others, and this is a rare commodity in a world that will fight for its own rights but will rarely be found defending the rights of others. Let Jesus be our example.

you will never have authority over something you are entertained by.

“If young men knew the price of sin, even in this life, they would not be so keen to purchase pleasurable moments at the price of painful years!”5

Everything in the kingdom is big because