Fully Following Jesus
Some people say they want to follow Jesus. They say they want their sins to be forgiven, so they can go to heaven. However, Jesus gave us two things we must do before we can fully follow Him. (Matthew 16:24) I want to make sure we hear what Jesus was telling His disciples. It applies to all of us today, as well.
We can't have a divided mind and heart, if we are to fully follow Jesus. Therefore, what we want can't be competing with what He wants us to do. Therefore, we have to "deny" ourselves first. That means we decide not to pursue what we want or what our flesh thinks we need. We say no to those things, and deny them. Then, we can begin the next phase of fully following Jesus, which is to take up our cross. That is a willingness to die for the Lord. The cross was an instrument of death. In Jesus' day everyone knew that. When we take up our cross, we are making the total commitment to do His will, even if it leads us to physical death. After all, that is what Jesus did for us, shouldn't we be willing to do the same for Him? If we won't take up our cross, things will come into our lives which will cause us to turn back from following Him. He told us that anyone who looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Once we have done these two things, we can fully follow Jesus the rest of our lives, and have the joy of knowing we are fully following the One who saved us all the way to being in heaven with Him.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Matthew 17-19.
We can't have a divided mind and heart, if we are to fully follow Jesus. Therefore, what we want can't be competing with what He wants us to do. Therefore, we have to "deny" ourselves first. That means we decide not to pursue what we want or what our flesh thinks we need. We say no to those things, and deny them. Then, we can begin the next phase of fully following Jesus, which is to take up our cross. That is a willingness to die for the Lord. The cross was an instrument of death. In Jesus' day everyone knew that. When we take up our cross, we are making the total commitment to do His will, even if it leads us to physical death. After all, that is what Jesus did for us, shouldn't we be willing to do the same for Him? If we won't take up our cross, things will come into our lives which will cause us to turn back from following Him. He told us that anyone who looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Once we have done these two things, we can fully follow Jesus the rest of our lives, and have the joy of knowing we are fully following the One who saved us all the way to being in heaven with Him.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Matthew 17-19.