Each for himself

While on earth, Jesus clashed with the Pharisees countless times. They hated Jesus because though He claimed to be the Messiah, He did not conform to their ideas of their Messiah. To complicate things, Jesus called Himself God, spat in the face of long standing traditions by eating with sinners, touching lepers and doing the abominable: working on the Sabbath. They could not stand Jesus, called Him a sinner and even Satan, constantly plotting to kill Him.
Jesus was not kind to them either. He called them hypocrites, blind, whitewashed tombs etc, while continuing to perform miracles and teaching multitudes.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Like his colleagues, he also had seen what Jesus was doing, heard Him speak and knew there was something different and divine about the man but the problem was that he was a Pharisee. Though he could feel in his heart that Jesus was from God, he could not publicly take a stand for him or acknowledge him before his fellow Pharisees for obvious reasons.

At some point Nicodemus realized that he had to take care of his own soul. He did not want to miss out if indeed this Jesus was who He said He was. One night, he was particularly restless, could not sleep; this thing was bothering him. So he got up and went in search of Jesus, in the night. When he found Jesus, Nicodemus said, “… “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” John 3:2 NKJV
Jesus taught him some truths and gave him some revelations about God, love and salvation.

When it comes to our salvation, search for and our relationship with God, this saying comes to mind: “each for himself, God for us all”. Our relationship with God is an individual thing. We cannot allow friends, associates and family to distract us, derail us or influence our decisions negatively. Nicodemus realized the importance of breaking away from the hypocritical pack and seek his own salvation. He knew that herd mentality would not help him any better; sticking with useless traditions and rules could be detrimental to his soul. So he took a step, under the cover of darkness, yes, but he did something.

If your group of friends, family, associates, and other loved ones are making your walk with God difficult, it is time to break away from them. If their comments and attitudes are becoming a stumbling block to your pursuit of God, it is time to take a stand and perhaps find new friends. Do not allow anyone to push you away from God because they are not ready to receive Him or from Him. To each his or her own.Blessings.

Love, Lady Monica.❤