“Come, follow Me.” Matthew 4:19 NIV

“You can make a good living, or let Jesus show you how to make a great life!”

Occasionally life offers you an opportunity that can change the rest of your life. That often happens at a time and in a way that you would least expect. The day is ordinary; the task routine. And then you are presented with an invitation that opens possibilities that you never before imagined.

You are invited to participate in something bigger and greater than your small dreams, and that now captures your devotion and focuses your future. You are newly inspired and life is never again the same. That opportunity changes you – the way you look at life, what you will do with your life. You are just going about “your business” when someone presents you an invitation to become busy with life – His business, real life.

That happened to a few men one day along the shores of Galilee. They were fishermen, doing what they did every day. They were doing what they enjoyed, making a good living. And then a Man told them how to make a great life! What was their opportunity? Jesus stopped where they were busy at work one ordinary day, and said, “Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” I can imagine their fingering those familiar nets considering what they would be leaving, what they might be risking. Then, sensing a greater opportunity, a once in a lifetime opportunity, “immediately, they left their nets and followed Him.” Would you do the same, today?

They were fishermen; they still would be fishermen – just why they were working, and for whom they were working would be very, very different. Jesus takes what you already do best and applies that to serving in His Kingdom, now working at His direction and with His anointing – engaged in matters eternal and more important than you ever dreamed before. Jesus changes the focus of what would gauge your success and provide your fulfillment, and that results in a great life.

If they had not accepted Jesus’ invitation, no one would ever have heard of them again. They would have lived their life in anonymity, never making much of a difference. Today the names of Peter and Andrew are well known and children are named after them. Their story is told again and again. Because their world changed, they changed the world around them then, and still do so today in every nation, culture, and language.

That happened to me when I was eighteen, enrolled for my freshman year at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to study architecture. I had planned to design and create buildings that men would find beautiful and inspiring. One day, Jesus invited me to build people whose lives could become beautiful and inspiring. I don’t know if I will have changed my world, but I know that I have seen Jesus change some lives, including mine.

Remember in the Godfather movie when the Don Corleone reported, “I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse?” Jesus gives you an offer you can but shouldn’t refuse. Your life depends upon it, the life you live now and the life that awaits you forever! It’s not a demand of force. It is an offer out of love, “Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

My prayer for you today is that you recognize your opportunity to be what He calls you to be.