God promises you a cross.
Luke 14:26-35 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Matthew 10:37-39 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
As we see here, the Lord is telling us that we can have nothing and no one in our lives that is more important then He is. He must be first, all the time, everywhere. He must be more important to us then our comfortable homes, then our health, then our families, and more important then our jobs, money, or status. Anything less then that, and we are not His disciples. This is part of the cross we must carry here at times. We must be willing to give up everything for Him. This was not at all what the people were expecting Jesus to say, and it’s not normally what people today expect either. Many people would have you believe the total opposite—that you should follow Jesus so that you can be healthy and wealthy. Unfortunately that is not what Jesus said.
No, Jesus is not calling all of us to live lives of poverty, nor is He calling all of us to die horrible deaths like He did and like many of the early followers did. He is telling us though that we will have a cross to bear and that life will not be easy for us. We will be judged and found wanting by the world, but we will be building up treasure in heaven. Nowhere do I find in the Bible that we should attempt to avoid our cross.
What this unpopular teaching of our Lord was saying is that things won’t be easy for those who follow Him and that they should seriously consider the cost of being His follower before jumping in. Sadly this is something most churches don’t bother telling people about. Instead they allow people to think that life is going to be a picnic after they accept Christ when in reality they’re signing up to be a soldier in a war. Many churches insinuate that all a person needs to do is to accept Christ and that is the extent of their “duty”. That doesn’t sound anything like what the Lord says here or elsewhere does it? No, the Lord tells us that:
· we must be willing to serve Him before all others;
· we must be willing to put His interests above our own;
· we must be willing to put His plans above our own;
· we must be willing to plan and sacrifice;
· we must be willing to persevere even during hardship;
Obviously the only way someone could be willing to do these things for the Lord is if they truly love Him and truly realize that He is their only hope for a future, and because they realize how totally incapable they are of helping themselves. These are the ones that tearfully get on their knees and ask our Lord to save them. These are the ones who become Christians, ready and willing to joyfully do whatever He asks, realizing how very much He has already done for them. This is you and me.
This is our duty, our part; and we do it by reading our bibles, studying His Word and reflecting on it daily and of course through daily prayer and obedience to His Word. Have you noticed that I always try to include the words “study and reflect” whenever I say we need to read our bibles daily? I do that because to often people will quickly read a chapter and feel like they’ve done their duty for the day. That’s not what the Lord is looking for. He wants us to immerse ourselves in His Word, to really get to know it and through it, to know Him. So dutifully doing a quick reading of a few verses or a chapter, closing your bible and not thinking about what it said for the rest of the day is not what He’s looking for. However, I don’t want to get caught up in quantity either. It’s not as important how much you read as it is important that what you read stays with you—that you reflect on it during the day.
Before we close for today, I want to share one other thing with you. Although Jesus asks us to realize the cost of being His follower and asks that we be willing to pay it, He tells us too that He will help us do our part. He doesn’t expect us to do it in our own strength, but rather expects us to allow Him to help us.
Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
1 Timothy 1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.
