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
{CHAMBERS} “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.
[…] 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. If, however, we obey God, He will care for those who have
suffered the consequences of our obedience. 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.”
{ELGIN} As so often happens,
I was just talking with a friend about this very issue. Our life on mission has required that we
leave our family behind in order to serve in the places, that God has sent
us. (Matthew 16:24) “If anyone comes after Me, he must deny himself,
pick up his cross and follow Me.” Have
you ever thought about what that might be?
Di you associate it with and limit it to intra-personal things and not
others? The truth is that God wants your
total devotion .. the Greek word for total means total! Not just what you think is sufficient. “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I
freely give.” Really? When God says, “Give
it up” are you willing to do that?
Really? Or are there certain
things that you or those around you have decided are just too much. My friend, in Texas, told me that when he
first met me and I told him that we had left our twin grandchildren in the care
of friends for two months and we came to Texas … well, he didn’t think nice
thoughts. Have you ever heard “Family is
everything”? Not in the Bible. God is everything. That is in the Bible. Our devotion must be to God first. Loving others springs out of loving God (Matthew 22:37-39)
Before we came to Texas,
another friend asked to meet with me over coffee. I discovered that his agenda was to convince
me that I should delay my departure until a better time for the twins. Makes sense … except God had told us to go ..
now. So we were faced with a
choice. Yield to the reason of man and
say no to God, not now. Or yield to God
and trust in His sovereignty. The first
friend in Texas said that after he got to know me, he realized why I had made
the decision, and believed it was the right one. So what is it in your life that God is asking
you to leave behind? To let go of? God will not make you choose Him. That is what free will is all about. But if you don’t, you will miss out on His
best. So my advice .. lay it down and
follow Jesus .. Jesus always sought to do the will of the Father, and so should
we.
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