Being a disciple can involve a lot of trial and error, because this is the way children learn.
“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
Part of our “cross to bear” is this immature nature of ours which causes us to struggle when it comes to following Christ. As I said yesterday, sometimes we can deny ourselves, but sometimes the temptation gets the better of us. It is not that God will not give us the strength to say no, but we have not yet reached the point of “no” return, sort of speak, and we fall into the temptation instead. Think of a rollercoaster here. Many of those rides need to get to a certain speed before they are able to get over the hump of that first high hill. If they push out, but do not reach that required velocity, the rollercoaster car ends up falling back down to its starting point. We are kind of like this too, my Friends. This is why life sometimes feels like a roller coaster. If we do not get to a certain level of submission to God’s Will over our own, we fall back down into the sin. God must be greater and we must be lesser…remember Jn 3:30?
So the more we connect with God, the more the One Who is in us really is greater than the one who is in the world, and any temptations the devil may be trying to tempt us with will not have power over us. We will have the desire and ability to deny ourselves, no matter how we are feeling. Our cross then would be doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do, even when our old, MMI Person doesn’t want to let us. This is what the Cross of Jesus comes down to, doing the right, and righteous thing. That would be following God’s Will over our own, no matter what He commands us to do.
Roller Coaster video: Kingda Ka Rollback
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
