Whether we realize it or not, we make our decisions every day based primarily upon one core and foundational decision: Who we have decided to follow. Will we choose to follow Jesus? Or will we follow self?
Each of us must count the cost of the decision to follow Jesus. What will it mean for us to really follow Him? Are we willing to lose everything if necessary? Are we willing to leave everything? Will we follow Jesus no matter the cost? Every day, all throughout the day, we will be tested on this decision. Who will be first? Will it be Christ or will it be self?
Jesus says plainly and boldly that we must pick up our cross if we want to follow Him. We must choose Him over our closest relationships, over our possessions, and even over our own lives. There is not a lot of wiggle room here. Either we are willing to leave everything renouncing all that we hold dear and pick up our cross and follow Him … or we are not.
How can anyone really do this? Doesn’t it seem utterly impossible? Yes, because it is. We are incapable of doing the impossible and doing it with the right heart motives. But nothing is impossible with God. In truth none of us can follow Jesus without His Spirit helping us and leading us from the inside out. If it is your heart to be a true disciple of Jesus, I encourage you to ask Him right now for His amazing grace to help you assess the cost and His amazing grace to grant you not only the desire and the willingness to pay the cost but the ability to actually do it. Leave everything He is calling you to leave. Count it all as nothing in order to follow Him.
Study the Scripture:
“A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’ “Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.”
Luke 14:25-33 NLT
