Following Jesus TodayExemplo

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." - Luke 9:23-24 KJV

Following Jesus comes with a cost and I believe that is why only a few people are willing to follow Jesus. To many people, it is too much of a price to pay. But when we consider how great a price the Lord paid for our redemption, we will see clearly that we are paying no price at all to follow Him.

For the next few days, we want to briefly consider this price we must pay to genuinely and wholly follow the Lord.

1) Deny Yourself

In Luke 9:23 we see something striking there;

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."

The Lord clearly shows us the price for following Him: all those who desire to follow Him must first deny themselves. Let's look at this for a moment: following Jesus entails denying one's self. It means to let go of selfish interests, self-centered ambitions, and count one's life as wholly belonging to the Lord. Most people are comfortable with attending church and doing some Christian activities as long as it doesn't affect their selfish interests. But clearly, no one holding on to personal interests and self-aggrandizement will ever walk with the Lord.

We live in a culture that pushes us to live for ourselves. It's a culture that encourages self-preservation and glory. But none of such things will thrive before the face of the Holy God. Everyone who has ever walked with the Lord and wishes to follow Him must learn the hard lesson of letting go of selfishness in all its forms and expressions.

It is safe to say that the very essence of following Jesus is to slay the self-glorifying tendencies in ourselves and bring us to a place of true service and obedience to the captain of our salvation.