I heard a testimony of a young woman today. She made the statement that for so many years Jesus was not her Lord, just her Savior. That gave me pause for considering whether that ever applied to me.
Salvation is a miracle of God - no question. It is fantastic - something of eternal consequence for everyone who is born again by faith. But that is only the beginning of our new life in Christ.
"if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." - Romans 10:9-10
Isn't it curious that Paul wrote that we must confess that Jesus is Lord in addition to believing that God, the Father, raised Him from the dead. I quote those verses so often in my writings. But there it is - Jesus is Lord. What exactly does that mean in the way I live my life?
"Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." - Matthew 16:24
Allow me to answer my question. If Jesus is Lord then I must be willing to sacrifice my desires and follow Jesus - in obedience to His commands - His Leading. So what gets in the way? Why does being saved seem to be so easy, as much as I struggled with yielding to the draw of the Spirit, when compared to submitting to the Lordship of Jesus?
Let me ask another question. Is there anything that you value more than Jesus? Most probably there is. It could be money, reputation, relationships, or possessions. Something that has pushed Jesus aside and taken His place as lord - with a small "L". Jesus had quite a few somethings to say about that.
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." - Luke 14:26-27
Our love for even our family should be subordinate (look like hate in comparison) to our love for God. The greatest commandment. There is so much more to our faith than Salvation. It is but the beginning. And whatever that "thing" is that you love more than Jesus, I want to encourage you to lay it down at the foot of the Cross.
In Matthew 19, a young man asked Jesus how he could have eternal life. He recounted how he had satisfied the law with respect to man. But Jesus told him that what he had done. What he took pride in was good but not enough - God must be first in his life - give up all that he loved more than God and follow Jesus. And the young man went away sad. We might agree with the idea in our minds but that agreement must make its way to our hearts. There must be life change and not just mental assent. "Mental assent" is when one tries to act as if they are in faith when they are really still in hope. Hope comes before faith. It takes faith to lay our love for the world down and follow Jesus.
Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory.
By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone
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