|
If
any one intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore,
disown and lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his
cross, and...follow with Me. For whoever wants to save his [higher,
spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it...and whoever gives up his life
[which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel's will save
[it].
– Mark 8:34-35, The Amplified Bible
|
|
When Jesus said those words, He
wasn't just giving us a prescription for getting to heaven. He was
telling us how to live a superior life right here on earth.
You
see, there's a high life that we can live right here, right now. But to
get in on it, we have to lay down the way of life that most of us are
accustomed to. We may have to let go of the very things we've been
trying so hard to latch on to. We have to set our hearts instead on
doing what God wants us to do.
That's what Jesus did. He didn't
live His life for Himself. He lived it completely for God. He did only
what the Father told Him to do—and He lived in total victory.
It's
time to realize that getting born again is not something we do just to
miss hell. Our purpose is to please God—to lay down our lives in order
to fulfill His desires. To be His special possessions in the earth and
to do whatever He tells us to do. Our top priority is to give ourselves
to Him and to live in communication with Him. To spend enough time with
Him that we can hear His voice and respond in obedience.
Only when
we do that will we be genuinely fulfilled. Only when we do that will we
be able to live the high life we've been longing for.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment