There's A Price to Pay

Scripture: Luke 9:23-25
"23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?"

Observations:
Jesus never tried to hide the fact that following Him was no walk in the park. In fact, He required anyone even remotely interested in the idea of following Him to make a full commitment upfront and surrender all that they are. Was He trying to turn people off to a relationship with God? I mean, really, who is gonna go for that? But Jesus knew exactly what He was doing and made no apologies for His methods. He wasn't exactly what you'd call "seeker sensitive", and yet Jesus Himself came into the world on a mission "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). By following Jesus, people could once again discover how to have a relationship with God. Even though Jesus wanted everyone around Him to accept His message, He also understood that sin was a reality that would make a right relationship with God impossible. Jesus made it clear that anyone who wants to follow Him and have a right relationship with God must lay down their sin on a daily basis and separate themselves from sin.

Application:
Although Jesus' death on the cross paid the price for our sins to be forgiven and accepted by God, each of us must choose to embrace what Christ has done on our behalf and surrender completely to the call to follow Jesus every day. Jesus never even hinted at the idea that this was going to be an easy process; He only guaranteed that a right relationship with God would be something worth giving our entire lives in exchange for. Either we believe it to be true or we don't. While some days may be harder than others, every day God requires that we pay the price and make a consicous decision to "turn from our selfish ways", "take up our cross", and "lose our lives" in order to follow Him.

Prayer:
Father, help us to live boldly for you and fully surrendered to the call to follow Christ daily. Give us the grace today to lay aside anything that would hold us back and "strip off the sins that slow us down" (Hebrews 12:1). Amen.


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