Set Like Flint

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 86, Set Like Flint.

Luke 9:51 — hear this carefully: "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem."

He set his face. He was not dragged. He was not ambushed. Jesus knew exactly what Jerusalem held — every detail of the cost — and he walked toward it anyway. This verse stops me every single time, because it says something we need to hear down in our bones: the love of God is not accidental. It has a direction. It has a purpose. Heaven's calendar came due, and Jesus did not wait for the cross to come to him — he went to meet it, face set, heart already decided.

Think about what Jerusalem meant. This was not a casual journey. Jerusalem meant rejection. It meant betrayal from someone sitting at his own table. It meant a cross on a hill outside the city walls. And Jesus knew all of it before he took the first step. He went anyway. And the reason he did not turn back, did not look for another road, did not negotiate the route — was you. You were the thought behind every step on that road. This is not abstract theology. It is personal. He chose the hardest path with your name on his heart.

And here is what moves me most in this text: courage is not the absence of feeling. Jesus felt everything — the weight, the cost, the full humanity of what was coming. But courage is continuing to walk even when you feel it all. It is setting your face even when your heart knows the price. And that is the pattern he left us.

Because there is a Jerusalem in your life too. Not the same — but real. There is an obedience you have been putting off. There is a calling you sense deep down, but it costs something — a hard conversation, an apology you owe, a yes you have been pushing to tomorrow for weeks now. And the easy road always sounds reasonable. The detour always comes with a justification. But some callings in your life allow no shortcuts. Some things God has placed in front of you have no alternate route — they only have the next step.

And here is what I have learned: obedience grows lighter when it is settled before the moment arrives. When you fix the direction of your heart before temptation gets a vote, before exhaustion speaks the loudest, before fear builds its case — then obedience is not a battle you have to fight every single time. It is a direction you have already chosen.

Jesus set his face. Before the betrayal. Before the cross. The decision was already made.

Today, before breakfast — before the day picks up speed — name one obedience you have been postponing. Give it a name. Not tomorrow, not when you feel more ready. Now. And take the first step. Maybe it is a message you need to send. Maybe it is an apology that is long overdue. Maybe it is a yes you have owed God for weeks. The first step — just the first — is what he is asking of you today.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.