Things To Think About

I always love when different portions of God’s Word come together to form one truth.  I always feel like this is a gift from God that helps me walk closer with him.  Lately, some personal circumstances have caused me to reconsider a difficult passage, Matthew 10:37-39:

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Without trying to sermonize on this passage, let me just share what God has been showing me.

A couple weeks ago, I went to my old church to listen to a young missionary friend of my son speak about his upcoming relocation to the Middle East with his wife and new baby.  Instead of sharing a lot of details about his mission, he instead spoke from his heart about being a martyr.  Most of us think of martyrdom as involving death, but Charley reminded us that true martyrs are those who are willing to live like martyrs while still alive.  I couldn’t help but think of the verses quoted above.

This year I’ve been re-reading Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional, My Utmost for His Highest; and, in the past week, there have been three readings that relate to this same topic.  Let me quote Chambers’ words:

“No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things.  We must relinquish . . . all claim of being worthy of God’s consideration . . . my claim to my right to myself in every phase.”

“Abandonment is not for anything at all . . . If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment; it is miserable commercial self-interest.  Real abandonment . . . is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.  The test of abandonment is always over the neck of natural devotion.  Most of us know abandonment in vision only.”

“The salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with Himself.  In our abandonment we give ourselves over to God just as God gave Himself for us, without any calculation.  The consequence of abandonment never enters into our outlook because our life is taken up with Him.”

God has given most of us wonderful gifts to enjoy here on this earth – families, homes, friends, freedoms, etc.  Enjoying them is not wrong.  But here’s a question for each of us to consider:  how are we doing with the concept of losing our lives for Christ’s sake – of living our lives here on earth as martyrs – of being willing to abandon all for Him?  Trusting God to help me be worthy of him . . .