I apologize for yesterday's blog being just verses and no input from myself. But I hope you meditated on it and thought about what was said. Those verses are incredibly challenging..
Denying myself is such a difficult challenge for me. But Jesus says this MUST be done if I want to follow Him. And do I want to follow Him? Oh Yeah. No question about it. But it is super hard. It is hard for me to let Jesus into the driver's seat. I want to know what's going on. I want to make the decisions. I want to be in control. ...But it's not about what I want. That's just another part of denying myself.
Jesus says not to run from suffering. He says to embrace it. Wow. What a radical statement. Embrace suffering? Talk about an uncomfortable bear hug... How can I learn to do that?? Jesus says follow Him and He will show me how. But I need to deny myself. I need to stop being selfish.
There is always that first step you need to take... It may be just letting someone else do all the talking and just listening for once. It may be opening a door for someone. It may be being patient. It may be taking the time out of your day to call up a friend you haven't spoken to in a while. Usually it is taking time out of your schedule..out of what you have planned..because God usually has something better planned.
People don't like taking the time for someone else...they call it wasting time. No..not being patient or building character..but wasting and frivilous and dragging. This is including myself. I am human. I do care about myself and it is human nature. But I am not of this world. I do not belong here. I belong to Jesus. I do not want to be great in the world's eyes...I want to be seen as great in the Lord's eyes. What good is it for me to gain the whole world...but lose my soul?
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