02/23/2021
So many people take pride in going their own way in life, but as Christians we forego that in order to serve God as Jesus did. We are not our own, but belong to God, and we find great pleasure in that. What’s more, we were bought at a very high price, having been redeemed with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus so that in our lives we would glorify God. If we profess to be Christians and do not yield ourselves to His will, then we must question our faith.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
Have you ever heard the expression “He is his own man.” Or perhaps the saying “He goes his own way.“? Well that is in reference to the way of the world, and such thinking should be the first thing we lay down as we pick up our cross to follow Jesus.
“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Mark 8:34 ESV
Speaking of the crucifixion... If we look around the world we will see many crosses, some are gold, while others are silver, or wood; some are ornately shaped, and many are simple and rough cut, meant to look as close to what is believed to have been the cross on which Christ was nailed as one can get. Each of these crosses reveal the faith of the wearer to those around him, but some more closely represent the instrument of suffering and shame that the cross on which Jesus was nailed truly was. So in this way, how close does the demonstration of our faith come to showing others that we do not belong to ourselves or the world, but to to God alone? How perfect is our self-sacrifice in yielding all we are to God? What does our spiritual cross tell others about our faith?
“looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:2 ESV
I asked earlier if you had heard a couple of sayings about being your own person, but there is a poem that I find more appropriate to us as Christians and a particular verse that I like to quote. This saying comes from a poem by Robert Frost who writes of desiring to take a road less travelled in life...
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
by Robert Frost
As Christians we take a road less traveled too, but it is a spiritual route. So many in the world take a self-centered road through life, and though they hear God’s voice, and the gospel of Jesus, they chose not to follow, and take the well-worn path of self-gratification as they walk out the days of their lives, but God’s Word speaks of a route that few take, and it is a spiritual path...
““Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Matthew 7:13-14 ESV
So today, as we look at the daily choices we are making do we find that we are not the owners of our lives? Have we chosen the narrow way, the route of the few, and given complete ownership of ourselves over to God? If so then we have chosen to accept our place among not only those who have heard, but those who are the chosen... true believers who are the property of God.
“For many are called, but few are chosen.””
Matthew 22:14 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for calling us to you, and for your Son Jesus Christ, our redeemer, who shows us what it means to be bought with a price, and not to be our own. We thank you for the rugged cross, and the shame it holds, but we also thank you for the example it shows the world of a faith that is true, and an obedience that shouts “I belong to God my Father!” Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who awaits us through the narrow gate at the end of the hard way we travel. We praise your name for choosing us, and calling our names as you read the list of those who are eternally yours. Merciful are you Lord for our redemption and full of grace are you as you make a place for us at your table. Hear our prayers as we call out to you by name, saying Master, Father, Abba... Lord, as we kneel before you. We are yours Holy Father, and desire to bring you glory in all we are forever.
“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”
Romans 14:7-9 ESV
Rich Forbes