Luke 9:24 For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it: but whoever loses his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
In this context, Jesus is talking to the disciples and He is asking them to give up whatever they are doing daily to follow Him. This has the idea that following God is going to mean running into some suffering and hardship. Even though salvation is a free gift from God, we still don't escape the suffering that just comes with being alive. This is going to mean denying yourself certain things to follow God. What that entails for each person will vary. For some people, it may be extremely difficult to give up something like not getting pounded drinking alcohol every day. For others, it may be difficult to give up spending every waking minute trying to get rich or catch bigfoot (kidding, unless you are currently doing that). There is nothing wrong with pursuits, but the idea here is that we need to be following God. It also covers the idea that it doesn't make any sense for us to try and save our lives on earth because we are going to pass away in a flash of time compared to the eternal life we could have with God. You could literally own the world and it would be worthless if you didn't pursue Jesus Christ and accept Him as your lord and savior (John 3:16). Jesus says this in the next verse. 25 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?" He then goes on to say in verse 26 "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.
Application: There is some very powerful stuff here to wrestle with. I think if you are walking with God you recognize that you are in a battle every day against sin in your own life, but also to be sure we are investing our time, talents, and wealth into things that are going to have an eternal value. I was actually thinking about this the other day. I write a ton of movie and TV reviews. I really enjoy doing that. However - unless I am injecting some real wisdom in my viewpoints that will lead someone to perhaps consider God, give them wisdom, or seek salvation, that exercise carries no eternal value. Part of why I started writing this blog was to get into the word more so that people might read it and start to learn what God has for them and about salvation and a myriad of subjects the Bible speaks to. I am guilty of not spending my time wisely and giving up my own life to follow God on a deeper level. I don't want to get to heaven and have sorrow about the things I did or failed to do and my life. I might live another 5 minutes or another 70+ years, but my life and all of our lives are short. Here are some verses that back up what I am saying a bit more. 1 Cor. 3:12-15 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
I am grateful to be saved through Jesus's work on the cross, but I don't want to be saved yet so as through fire. I want to have my work endure for eternity because it pleases God. This is why I think that when the accusers attack the faith of a Christian with "well God is a crutch", that isn't the case. The crutch is doing nothing and pretending that God is totally fine with it. The crutch is not facing the reality God has set before us and changing our lives, giving our lives up for "His sake". This doesn't have the idea of killing yourself for anyone that has read this far and is confused. It has the idea of giving up the things that are getting in the way of our walk with God. There are things in life we have to do to continue to live and be productive members of society, but even in those things, we can function in such a way that brings glory to God.
I might have told this story before but I used to spend a lot of time writing poems. One of those poems was called "SeVer" and it was written back when the only social media platform MySpace was in its heyday. A girl read the poem and said it led her to Jesus Christ and getting saved. It was kind of a shocker that it happened at all, but even more so, that this girl was gothed out and didn't appear to be even exposed to much if anything Godly at all. Not all my poems were meant to do that, but it is a kind of proof that speaking truth in our talents, time, and wealth as little as that may be, has power and when we are submitted to God, we can have an eternal impact when we least expect it.
I know, there was a bit too much maybe about me, but it's also exposing. I need to do a better job at giving up my own life for the sake of furthering God's Kingdom.
Okay - on to the question. What in your life if keeping you from a walk with God?
God Bless everyone who takes the time to read this. Even if it changes no one's life, it gives me time with my Father in heaven which is something we all desperately need.
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