If we are Christians, then we must become His disciples too.
“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
I have said so many times, and will continue to proclaim, a Christian is not just someone who says they believe in Jesus. A Christian is someone who follows Jesus too. This is what is meant by disciple. If you say you believe in Jesus, but have no desire to seek to imitate Him more and more, then I hope today you will have a serious talk with God about the state of your heart. It is when we really begin to grasp the sacrifice of Jesus and the Grace of God towards us, that something deep in our spirit will stir and we will desire to give Him back as much of ourselves as our level of maturity allows.
There is nothing more important to God than our Salvation, because then we will be His children forevermore. God would rather have an immature child than to have a lost human. But He also desires us to grow up so that we can experience all the blessings of being His. This is what we call Sanctification, and it is simply becoming a disciple of Jesus.
This is exactly what Jesus is calling us into here, in this verse, “whoever wants to be my disciple.” Do we want to follow Jesus now that He has saved us from sin, self and eternal death? Or do we just want to continue living the self-centered, MMI life we used to live? Remember that old life was centered on Pride, which is the root of all evil. That is not WHO we are anymore, so the old life will never give us anything but heartache, frustration and disappointment. It is when we choose to start living this New Life in Christ, that the Abundant Life becomes real to us, more and more. And the first step in this process is…well, we will talk about it tomorrow…but if you know where I am going, leave your comment below.
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
