Last week we started with the idea of an amateurAlongsider Discipleship being a lover of things. You can read that post here. This week we’re going to look at this discipleship idea as a personal way of life. Remember, most of the time we talk about discipleship as a program or process that occurs in other; but an alongsider can only come alongside you as far as they’ve already gone.

The author suggests, and I completely agree, that we’ve all too often lost our desire for more of God. Think about it for a minute. It’s like we just know what’s coming. There’s no adventure left in our walk with God. We just have grown comfortable with the bible and what it has to teach us because we’ve heard that before. 

An Alongsider is a person that is on a daily adventure with Jesus. He looks for new places to find Jesus in the everyday moments of life. She is willing to keep her eye open for times when Jesus surprises her at work or at home. It’s all too easy to just go through the motions, but it’s not healthy! Jesus says to the woman at the well, whoever drinks from the water I give will never be thirsty again. If you grew up going to church, you probably know that he wasn’t talking about a bottle of water or physical water from the well. He was talking about having a thirst for him. He says it again this way, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Do you hunger and thirst for the things of God? This is the foundation of a disciple’s life. It is upon this growing relationship with Christ that your discipleship walk will continue. Perhaps you need to lose the old image of a disciple that has been engrained in your mind for years. It’s ok to rethink the image of disciple. A disciple is one who recognizes that Jesus has already come alongside you.

Throughout the Bible there is evidence of God being a come alongside of us kind of God. He’s not distant and far off. Instead he’s right here with us. Walking among us. Guiding and leading us. The Scripture is full of bible verses that talk this way. His name given, Immanuel, means God with us. It says in John 1 that he set up his tent among us. God desired nothing more than to live in a relationship with you and me. This is discipleship.

The definition of a disciple that I have come to use in my life is: Discipleship is the process of being transformed into the image of Christ for the sake of others. God seeks to work his work within us to reform us, to transform us into his perfect image, the image we abandoned with our sinful words and action. And he does it for the sake of those who don’t yet live in this relationship. Discipleship is about what God is doing in you for the sake of those around you.

Perhaps the place to start with this hungering and thirsting for God is to simply begin to look at what the Bible says. Open your bible and read a single verse a day. Download an app on your phone that will give you a bible verse to focus on everyday. You don’t need to memorize it. Just read it and then be on the lookout for how you see that verse come alive throughout your day. As followers of Jesus we believe that the Bible is more than a black a white book. It’s alive. It is meaningful. It’s real and useful today. Put it to the test.

Here are a couple of great resources that have proven helpful to me in this process:

  • The Divine Mentor by Wayne Cordeiro – Wayne shares a great devotional practice of bible journaling.
  • Youversion.com is a wonderful Bible App for any mobile device. There are bible reading plans, verse of the day, and other great resources.
  • Biblegateway.com is another tech-type tool to get you into the Bible on a regular basis.
  • 5x5x5 Reading Plan by NavPress is another great tool that really helped focus my time in the Bible. In just 5 minutes a day 5 days a week you can dig into the Bible.

There are many more resources out there. The key is to reestablish a hunger, a longing, a passion for the things of God. Start somewhere, anywhere for that matter. Just begin your journey into a deeper relationship with Jesus as your personal Alongsider today. May you be hungry and thirsty for God today.