A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?
Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’ ~Luke 14:25-30 NLT
Today’s post is heavy. It was supposed to be last week’s post but I didn’t want to share it. Reason being that I know how far I am from this and also because I realized the magnitude of what Jesus is asking of us. However, I realized that this gospel is not about me, it’s about Jesus so I must share this word and stop being disobedient.
Brothers and sister, what Jesus requires of us will require laying down EVERYTHING for Him. We are at the place where we can no longer joke with our walk with God, we must stop treating God like a yo-yo where we drop Him and pick Him up at our convenience. It means we must turn away from all that we’ve known and realizing that our lives are not our own and like Queen Esther said, “If I die, I die” (Esther 4:16) for the cause of the Gospel. Sounds scary, right? I know that’s what I was thinking. But that is the flesh rising up and refusing to submit to God!
Submission to God
Every one of us will get to the place where we must make a decision and that choice is whether to be FULLY serve Jesus or not.
But if you refuse to serve the Lord , then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord .” ~ Joshua 24:15 NLT
Will we be willing to give up our earthly possessions, family,friends and face persecution for His name’s sake? Will we be bold enough to speak that which God tells us to speak without being afraid of losing our lives? Will we be willing to submit everything to Him and withhold nothing?
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. ~ Luke 16:24
The good news is….
This is the promise that Jesus has given to us who will lay everything down for Him….
Make up our mind brethren. For time is short.
