I don’t play the lottery, well I do when the number gets really
big, I mean life changing for everyone I know big, and I even will go as
far as making a list of who I would give what to and how much. I believe,
if only for a moment, that I have won that big jackpot, and what it would feel
like to share the winnings with people and causes that mean so much to me.
I personally am not a materialistic person. I don’t need to
have name brand anything, if I like it, and I can afford it, I buy it. I
am not a big shopper, but I do go on a couple excursions every now and
then. There are truly few costly things that get me excited, but the
little things, oh, the little things, they make my life.
I was not raised with money or comfort, I should say. We
lived pay check to pay check, and I was very aware of that. I knew that I
wouldn’t go hungry or without, but I also knew that we couldn’t live luxuriously
or lavishly. I believe this is part of what has helped shape me and what
I take pleasure in.
I’ve always known, somehow, that what I have wasn’t as important
as who I was. I always knew that the name brand of my sneakers, clothes
or car wouldn’t speak for the quality of person I was, or was not.
I knew that these things were nice to have but they wouldn’t get me where I
needed to go.
I didn’t always know where that was either.
I knew there was
something bigger, and a reason for my pain, and life problems, but I couldn’t put
a finger on exactly what it was or how I was going to get
there. But I knew I would get there…somehow!
In Matthew 16:24-27 Jesus is explaining to His disciples that if
you are going to follow Him, you would have to put yourself, your desires, your
problems to the side and take up His cross. Meaning, you would have to
die to yourself and live the life that He is showing you.
(24) Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be
My disciple, let him deny himself (disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself
and his own interest) and take up his cross and follow Me (cleave steadfastly
to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying,
also). (25) For whoever is bent on saving his (temporal) life (his
comfort and security here) shall lose it (eternal life); and whoever loses his
life (his comfort and security here) for My sake shall find it (life
everlasting) (26) For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and
forfeits his life (his blessed life in the kingdom of God)? (27)For the
Son of Man is going to come in the glory (majesty, splendor) of His Father with
His angels, and then He will render account and reward every man in accordance
with what he had done.
Jesus is telling us that this path will not be easy, and we will
have to forfeit some of our own desires, if not all of them, to be the person
that He has designed for us to be. He is saying that if we are able to do
that, if we are able to pick up our cross and follow Him, the reward in heaven
will be insurmountable. There will be no limit to the reward that we will
receive when we uphold the name of the Lord.
But there is another side to this calling, a side that is
painful and lonely. There is a road, a narrow road, that will bring you to
the end of yourself, and the middle of loneliness, but right on the cusp of
God. There is an undisclosed amount of time where you will be in
pain. You will feel the rejection of your choices and you will feel the
burden of My cross. You might even feel the sting of My death, for following
Me.
All of these things come with the choice or decision to follow
your heart’s cry. These decisions are not made, by most,
lightly. These are decisions that are pained over, mulled over,
discussed, prayed over, and I am sure many tears shed over. These are not
things that you wake up thinking ok, let’s get at it.
This is a life changing, life altering, and life abandoning
change…
For some people, such as Peter, this was an easy decision.
Jesus said follow Me and I will make you fisher of Men and Peter said, ok,
let’s go. Not so much for most of us, here living this life, without the
physical body of Jesus to touch. No, we are left to make this decision by
looking around at what we already have, and how the promises of God, are so much
more inviting.
We are taught for every wrong there is a right, and for every
decision there is a reaction, which is completely true, when you are operating
on the world’s economy but when you are operating on God’s economy, well, it
doesn’t work that way.
You see Jesus will tell you to lay down your own life and pick up
His, but what you don’t understand is the life that you are laying down, you
truly are lying down. You are not going to do this “Jesus” thing half way,
and then navigate yourself between your life choices and His. Nope,
that’s not going to happen.
You will be forced to make a decision, and your decision will be
upon what you receive your reward or your reaction.
When you choose to
lay down your life and pick up His, you won’t see the reward immediately;
actually, you will feel pain. You will feel discomfort and you will feel
alone. You will not understand what is happening to you, but at the same
time, you won’t be able to turnaround and return to who you once knew.
For all the unpleasant things you feel, the wonderful feeling you
have inside of your heart and spirit will not allow you to turn around and lay
down His cross for your old man.
God has a wonderful way of taking you to the brink of complete
mental destruction and then filling you with His love, comfort and peace at the
same time. He has a way of pushing you to the point that you want to leap
off the mountain to end the confusion, but giving you the courage to take
another step, when you thought it wasn’t possible.
You see in the world we live in when you make a good decision you
get rewarded, you get a star, a high five, or some response that lets you know
you did well. With Jesus you are expected to do good, and keep doing
good.
You are walking in the footsteps of Jesus; you have laid down your
life for His, so to do anything other than good would be a mockery of His
name.
But as we see in Matthew 16:24-27 this is all to be
expected. We should expect all the things in our earthly life to push us
to the point of no return, to make us truly make that decision, that leap and
then look for God to catch us. We should know that even though it hurts
we are building up the kingdom of heaven, here on earth. We are
reinforcing the troops of God to do His battle here on the earth.
We see that it won’t profit us to hoard or store things of worldly
treasures here, we can’t take them with us, but what does profit us, what we
can store up and hoard, is the good works that we do in the name of Jesus, here
on earth.
We can make those decisions to pick up our crosses and follow
Jesus into the life that really matters, the eternal life. We can get
gold stars, check marks and high fives in heaven, we can be focused on doing
what we know God would want us to do, now, here on earth, even when it hurts
us, because we know, we have faith, that one day Jesus will return again, with
His angels, our loving Father, and all the riches we have stored up in heaven
will be given to us.
We will be rewarded according to the work that we have done
here. The souls that we have brought to God. The lives that we have
helped change, shape or mold. The role models that we were in times of
struggle, anguish and fear. We are rewarded in ways that aren’t seen to
the worldly eye, but to the spiritual person, the one also connected and
carrying the cross, they will recognize you and they will continue helping you
fight the fight here on earth.
Doing right doesn’t always seem or feel like the thing we want to
do, but when you think about it and put it in context of why you should do
right, there really is no other choice. We must all lay down our
own lives and agendas and sacrifice ourselves, the way our Savior did and pick
up our crosses and follow His steps!
Now that’s a lottery I will play every day and expect to win!!!
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