don't make it difficult

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Acts 15:1-35. In the reading, we hear from Peter and James, who tell the believers in the early church that they shouldn't make it so difficult for people to come follow Jesus.

And that's good advice for us today. It's tempting to try to require those who desire to be His disciples to do the things that we find useful in our spiritual lives. It's easy to fall into the error of saying, "You have to get up at 5am every morning and spend three hours in prayer, memorizing a chapter of the Bible every day. And then you must share your faith with fifteen people before breakfast."

There is nothing wrong with doing any of those things. But they're not required of us as Christians. We should make sure to keep things as simple as we can, so as to keep from overwhelming those who are first trying to follow Jesus. "Love God with all your heart, and love others like you love yourself," is a good place to start. In fact, Jesus said that ALL of the laws and the prophets are summed up in those two commands. If we learn to do THOSE well, everything else will fall into place.

Do we need other laws? Well, we're human. So yes. But let's not get so hung up on little technicalities that we lose sight of what's most important. Love God - love others.

God, thanks for helping us to keep our focus on what's most important.