Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. …”
Matthew 16:24-25 ESV
Following Jesus… requires… denying self… or in other words… dying to self… our self-will… our own understanding… our own desires…
Choosing to follow Jesus immediately sets up an internal conflict…
For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.
Galatians 5:17 NIV
It’s not uncommon to hear Believers say… When I get to this point in my life… THEN I will spend more time with God… serve Him… do what He calls me to… BUT right now… I just don’t have time… there’s too much to do…
We look at our lives awash with busyness… and decide to wait to spend more time with God… read through the Bible… join the prayer group… or start the ministry He’s put on our heart… when things slow down… when the time is right…
But really… there is no right time… because following Him requires dying to self… and there is no good… convenient… time to die…
The Israelites’ entrance into the Promised Land required crossing the Jordan River… and the time appointed by God… was a most inconvenient time… the river flowed at flood stage… out of its banks…
But after wandering in the desert for forty years… they were prepared to trust God more than their own understanding…
So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks through the time of harvest), the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away…
Joshua 3:14-16 ESV
The priests went first… carrying the precious ark of the covenant…
With the river rushing before them… they set aside their fears of being washed away… dismissed their understanding of what would happen if the torrent swept their feet out from under them… and they stepped into the flood waters…
Only then… with a complete act of faith and trust… did God show up… and stop the flow…
And He not only stopped it… He backed it way up… far away from them… giving plenty of margin and dry land… for the multitudes to cross into the land of promise…
The same is still true for us… their is a world flooded with things to do… excuses to make… fears to give into… to keep us from crossing over into the life God has prepared for us…
Yet… it is here… in the flood of our busy lives… God calls His people to enter His presence… participate in His Kingdom… minister to His people… and give without fear of scarcity… whether money… or time… or energy…
When we hear Him call… if we say Yes… and back up that yes with action… He… will… show… up…
When we say… If I perish… I perish… then we will experience resurrection life and power…
No… there is no good time to die… to our self-will… our desires… our reason… but when we do… Oh… how much we gain…
What we thought was life… what we so thought we needed to hang onto and save… is really no life at all…
Only in Him… do we find life… full… abundant… satisfying… joy-full… peace-full… LIFE…!
What are you putting off…? for just the right time…?
Where are you failing to follow Him…? to trust Him…?
How can you begin to deny your “self” today…? take a step of faith…? where He is calling you to cross over…?
Stop making excuses…
Because really…
There is no good time to die…
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