As they led Him away, they
laid hold of a certain man, Simon…, and on him they laid the cross that he
might bear it after Jesus. —Luke 23:26
“If we obey God, it is going
to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the pain begins.
If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything— it is a delight.
But to those who do not love Him, our obedience does cost a great deal. If we
obey God, it will mean that other people’s plans are upset. They will ridicule
us as if to say, “You call this Christianity?” We could prevent the suffering,
but not if we are obedient to God. We must let the cost be paid.[…] A lack of
progress in our spiritual life results when we try to bear all the costs
ourselves. And actually, we cannot. Because we are so involved in the universal
purposes of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to Him. Will
we remain faithful in our obedience to God and be willing to suffer the
humiliation of refusing to be independent? Or will we do just the opposite and
say, “I will not cause other people to suffer”? We can disobey God if we
choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but it will grieve
our Lord. […] We must simply obey and leave all the consequences with Him. Beware
of the inclination to dictate to God what consequences you would allow as a
condition of your obedience to Him.” CHAMBERS
As I read Chambers this
morning, I was thinking about family and friends who are not believers, that
have turned aside from us because of our faith and about family and friends who were separated
from us because of our service to the Lord. About counting the cost for
following Jesus. (Matthew 12:46-50) “While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his
mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him,
“Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” He
replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his
disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the
will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus brought spiritual, eternal perspective
that conflicted with natural understanding.
In that room, He was honoring his Father, but was given the opportunity
to turn from that to honor His natural mother and family. Nothing wrong with that. In fact the fifth commandment says to honor
your father and mother. But if you
notice that commandment is fifth. The
first four have to do with your relationship with the Father, who is in
heaven.
Jesus also said, “If anyone comes
to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and
sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and
follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke
14:25-27) Our faith must be our
priority. Our relationship with our
Father must shape every other facet of our lives. Every relationship, every desire. Our love for Him should pale every other relationship we have. Do you remember Lot’s wife? When she turned back to look, she was not
just leaving a life style, she was leaving family. She did not have a heart for
God, but for what she was told to leave behind.
You may be struggling with a broken relationship or with God’s call for you to do something or go
somewhere that will affect relationships that you care about. Obey God.
Trust God. Faith God. And leave the rest to Him. ELGIN
“I have decided to follow
Jesus. The world behind me, the Cross
before me. No turning back, No turning
back.”
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless
You)
Charley Elgin
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