Skip to main content

No regrets

 Jesus said to all of them, “If people want to follow me, they must give up the things they want. They must be willing to give up their lives daily to follow me. Those who want to save their lives will give up true life. But those who give up their lives for me will have true life." (Luke 9:23-24)

I think this verse frightens some people because they think this 'giving up things' is going to be way harder than it actually is. When Jesus tells us that we must be willing to give up our daily lives to follow him he isn't saying we never have fun again. He isn't implying there is no joy in living for him. In fact, he really brings more joy into our lives than anything we 'give up' could ever provide.

There is a choice here - people 'want to follow' - they are actively choosing his will over theirs. What are some of the things we 'give up' when following Jesus? Some will automatically answer things like partying every Saturday with the homies, swearing like a sailor, or going to the football games on Sunday instead of church. While these choices may be part of the outcome of laying it all down for Jesus, they aren't the things he's seeking.

The 'giving up' part is really a willingness to seek his will first in our lives. That means we don't just 'willy-nilly' go about living, hot one moment, cold the next. We choose each and every day to submit our daily activities to him, allowing him to use us as he wills. That may look a little like gathering with our friends and family around a great big potluck meal and just celebrating being together. It could look like us offering a ride to a stranger stranded by the side of the road, taking us just a bit out of our way or delaying our progress toward our destination a bit.

Living "for Christ" doesn't have to be giving up all the things we enjoy. I go fishing on some Sundays - but I also take time in his Word before I do - because it builds me up and gives me 'spiritual sustenance' for my day. If you have been putting off choosing Christ because you thought you'd have too much to give up, think of it this way. The 'giving of our lives' never comes with regret. Christ never asks us to give up anything he isn't willing to replace with something we will actually come to appreciate more than whatever it is we lay at his feet. Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,