Discipleship

What should it cost me to follow Jesus? Jesus isn't calling us to something that He Himself isn't already laying down. Our Savior is so good, because He gets us and He understands us. He isn't someone who is saying "get on my level." He humbles Himself and asks us to follow Him. He's not yelling at us from the sidelines, He's like Shaun T from Insanity doing it right along side us.

Jesus knows what temptation is like. Matthew 4:1 tells us "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil..." He empathizes and sympathizes with us because He knows us and has been where we have been. Loose your identity and put your identity in Him. That's what discipleship is.

We must follow the purpose and plan of God. It's either all Jesus or no Jesus. So, what things compete for your affections? Jesus requires us to be all in, because He is all in for us. We can't have competing affections. That's not trusting God or denying yourself. What is it that you continue to run back to that isn't Christ? Those things don't bring ultimate joy and satisfaction. They will leave you empty. If you're looking for your identity in those things, you will loose your identity. Deny yourself, take up your Cross daily. Every day, choose this identity.

Jesus is intentional in telling us what to do. We are calling ourselves to submissiveness to who Jesus is when we take up our Cross. How often do we justify the things that we do? I find myself doing this all the time. We are fully submitted to Him when we deny ourselves, when it's no longer about us. A relationship with Him is highly relational. Even if it were to cost us our whole lives, we must believe that Jesus really is the son of God. If your self worth is found in anything but Jesus, then it's sin. He is a sufficient identity to place ourselves into. Join in a relationship with Him, He died for you.

We proclaim God in our lives, speech, and actions. Die to yourself. In that you gain life. Luke 9:24 is my favorite verse, it says "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." As we follow Him, we get to walk with the God of the Universe that desires you. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing we are saved by and will be saved by. There is no point in our lives when we don't need to hear that He died for us.

Follow Him. Do it all out because He did it all out for us,
Courtney