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. Matt 16:24,25
These are some of my favorite verses. I think that Jesus shows really well here that faith in him that is saving is faith that is willing to surrender everything to him. One of the teachers at the bible school that I went to used to like to say that it is easy to die for Jesus then it is to live for him. When Jesus says that we must lose our lives for him he is not just referring to physical martyrdom but also to an intentional surrender of everything that defines our life. This is just a theoretical surrender but a surrender that will actually change how you live. For example, everyone should evaluate their career and decide whether it is the best way that they could be serving God. Even if you like your job and it pays well if you could be doing something more productive for the kingdom of God then you should change. This is true for everything in life. This is what Jesus means by deny yourself. Our selfish nature requires that in order to serve God's kingdom as much as possible we are going to have to make sacrifices and deny ourselves of things that we would rather be doing. Following Jesus is not just about learning to be good but learning to give more and more to his kingdom.What have you given up lately?
Posted by rose at November 7, 2006 09:25 AMHi Rose,
Can you please clarify what you mean by "everyone should evaluate their career and decide whether it is the best way that they could be serving God. Even if you like your job and it pays well if you could be doing something more productive for the kingdom of God then you should change."
I'm not sure by what criteria one could decide clearly what would be "more productive" for the kingdom of God. Any thoughts?
Paul
Posted by: paul at November 15, 2006 04:21 PMUnfortunately, I can't spell out what is the most productive thing each person could be doing with their time. This completely depends on their place in life, talents, resources, etc. For some people, staying in their boring job making money for the kingdom would be best while for other people leaving the exact same job would be best. One good example of this would be if two woman worked the same job and then one had a baby; the one that is a mother should probably leave their job while the other doesn't have that factor to consider. My point was just that people need to consider giving up everything and anything, including their careers, for the kingdom of God. As a very simple criteria for making a decision like this I would suggest that if you can think of something to be doing with your time that provides for your basic needs (bare bone basic) that is more loving to God or to people then it should be done. For example, if you sell shoes and you can competently work as a care aid that would be a good move. It's not always that easy and if you're honestly not sure what move to make then staying put for the time being is probably best. Just be careful that a hesitation to sacrifice isn't clouding your judgement on what would be best. Does that clarify a little?
Posted by: Rose at November 16, 2006 08:33 AMYes, that helps. I've struggled with this whole career thing for a long time and I'm frsutrated that I can't seem to get a clear idea of what I should do w.r.t. my career. Am I willing to give up my present job? Sure, if I clearly thought that another job would be more useful to the Kingdom. But as you said, it's not always that easy to discern. :(
Paul
Posted by: paul at November 16, 2006 09:10 PM