Let’s say it by heart today, and choose to follow this process every day.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Mt 16:24 NIV
Wanting to be His disciple. This is how we started our conversation this week, and this is how I would like to end it. It is the key to the Abundant Life. The lives you and I lived apart from Christ, were mediocre at its best, and miserable at its worst. But we do not need to continue living that way. Today, right now, we can decide to be His disciple. We can choose to deny our old, MMI person. We can move towards picking up our cross, with Jesus right by our side. We can be determined to follow Him, no matter where that leads. And we can leave a lasting legacy in this world that will affect the next world, for years to come. We can…if we want to be His disciples.
It matters little how many people you think you are influencing for Christ. Again, I am sure St Paul had no idea we would still be reading, and learning, and growing from the letters he wrote to the churches of his day either. God can take our tiny effort and multiply it in ways we never imagined. Here’s a quick story of how He did that for me on one occasion a while back. Beckie had passed away at this point, and I was processing it all with a friend who was a Chaplain at a hospital where Beckie spent a lot of time. As we were talking, a Sister came in to my friend’s office and said that the speaker for the 12 noon service in the hospital chapel was not available. She said the topic was “forgiveness” and she wasn’t sure what to do. My friend turned to me and asked if I had any talks on forgiveness that I could share with the group. I said, “Well, I am sure I can come up with something.” And with that, I became the guest speaker at this gathering.
When the Nun called me up to the pulpit, I gave a five to ten minute speech about forgiveness and sat down. I was happy to share with the dozen or so people who had attended the chapel mass. The whole time I spoke though, I noticed that my friend had her eyes closed. Afterwards, she said, “I was praying for you to not be nervous the whole time, and hoping you did not remember that this service is televised throughout the entire hospital.” See? I thought my words were going out to a few people who were physically in front of me in the chapel, meanwhile, God was touching who knows how many people throughout the whole facility!
My Friends, never belittle how God is using you because we really have no idea how many people we are blessing, and in which ways we are blessing them. Choose to be His disciple. Let the Holy Spirit help you deny yourself, pick up your cross, then just follow Jesus. You will be blessed, and you will be a blessing.
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
35- Mt 16:24
<>< Peace, Diane
