What does Jesus really look like? This question comes to me every year or two where I just have to re-evaluate all that is in my life so that I can let go of and shake off all that is not Him.

It always begins with, would I recognize Jesus if I saw Him in the flesh today? Does He look like a particular church, belief or faith? What would He be doing or saying?

Once again I have to go back to the scriptures only to get frustrated that my life as well as a lot of other Christian’s lives just don't look like Him in so many areas.

I certainly can’t change anyone else so I look to myself and ask Him, does This look like YOU?

I remember these words that a friend of ours wrote when he too, was searching for the True Jesus after having been in the ministry for a multitude of years.

When you can’t remember the twenty-two characteristics of a good husband or wife, the nine ways of love, the seven steps of appeal to authority, the eight things to do when you are worried, the four spiritual laws or the eight spiritual flaws, it is time to get back to Jesus alone….

When you don’t know if you should sit at His feet, walk in a manner worthy of His call, stand in the time of battle, or run the race with diligence, it is time to get back to Jesus alone….

When you’re told you should hear the Word, read the Word, mark the Word, memorize the Word, study the Word, and meditate on the Word, and you are lost somewhere in the middle of Leviticus, it is time to get back to Jesus alone….

When you hear Bible teachers say, it is pre, mid, post, a, or pan, don’t take the “mark”, or the key is “times, time and half a time” and you are having trouble getting through the week, it is time to get back to Jesus alone…

When you are confused by hymns like, “Cause Me to Come to Thy River, O Lord” because the next one is “I’ve God a River of Life Flowing Out of ME”, it is time to get back to Jesus alone…

When you have gone to your fifth conference this year that claimed, “This is It’ and you tried “It” and “It” didn’t work, it is time to get back to Jesus alone…

When you just heard someone say, “Thus said the Lord” and that contradicted the last, “A word for the Lord” which was contrary to the previous, “the Lord told me” and you finally get the picture that maybe the Lord isn’t saying all those things, it is time to get back to Jesus alone…

It is past time to separate His commands from Christian demands. It is time to simplify, to consider some lilies and birds. It is time to just be with Jesus alone and hear Him say, “I love you.” And when you ask Him what He wants you to do, it sure simplifies things to hear Him say again. “Just love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself!”

Tis the season to find out, are we with Jesus, following His heart and soul, or are we going about trying to get to Him by doing what we have learned to do.

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3

Submitted by: Angie M. Sheets

This article was originally sent to me as an email, by Angie M. Sheets of California. I felt it coincided with the article written on Learning to Lean, Part 2, and asked permission to include it in Real Women!