Following Jesus will always cost you something
The struggle of fear is a common challenge for many individuals who are hesitant to fully follow Jesus. This fear may arise from uncertainties about where God may lead them or the sacrifices they may have to make. The opinions of others may also play a significant role in shaping these fears.
Jesus understands these struggles, and in Mark 8:34, He called out to His followers, saying, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." This statement urges us to make a conscious decision to surrender our lives, dreams, wishes, and directions to follow Jesus Christ.
However, it is essential to acknowledge that following Jesus will always come at a cost. In Mark 8:35, Jesus states, "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it." Jesus is asking us to center everything in our lives on Him because we love Him, and in doing so, we lose our lives. It is a decision we make daily to pursue Jesus Christ by putting Him first in everything we do.
The reward for centering our lives on Jesus is life itself. Jesus said, "I want you to pursue me because you love me. If you center your life on me, you will receive life; you will find life in me. Are you willing to give up everything for me?" (Mark 8:36 NIV). This statement highlights the importance of being willing to give up everything, even if it means forfeiting worldly possessions, to gain eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Ultimately, as Christians, we must remember that the cost of not following Jesus far outweighs the benefits of gaining the whole world. As Jesus says in Mark 8:36, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" Therefore, let us cast our fears aside and place our trust in Jesus Christ, knowing that by doing so, we will gain eternal hope.
Are you afraid to follow Jesus? Are you holding back because of the fear of what it will cost you? The truth is, following Jesus is not an easy path, but it is the path that leads to eternal life.
In Mark 8:34, Jesus calls out to his followers, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This means making a decision to no longer live for yourself, but to surrender your life, dreams, wishes, and direction to follow Jesus Christ. It means making daily decisions to put Jesus at the center of your life and pursue him with all your heart.
What are you willing to sacrifice?
In Mark 8:35, Jesus says, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it.” Jesus is asking us to center everything on him because we love him. We lose our life when we give our life to follow Jesus, but we do it because we love him and want to center our life on him. Jesus is saying, “I want you to pursue me because you love me. If you center your life on me, you will find life in me. Are you willing to give up everything for me?”
In Mark 8:36, Jesus asks, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Jesus is saying that our soul, our life after this life, is of greater value than all the things we have now. It’s no good to gain everything we want now and lose out on life after this life. Jesus is calling us to trade it all now to ransom our soul, save our life, and experience life after life.
But fear can be a paralyzing force that keeps us from fully following Jesus. We fear what God will lead us towards, fear what we have to give up, and fear what people will think of us. Jesus knows this, and in Mark 8:38 he says, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Jesus wants us to understand that when this life ends, that is not the end. We will actually give an account of how we lived our life. Our decision to follow Jesus or not will have power and consequences. When we stand before Jesus, we will give an account for our life.
So, are you willing to overcome your fear and follow Jesus? Are you willing to give up everything for him and center your life on him?
Remember, following Jesus is not an easy path, but it is the path that leads to eternal life. Fear is a natural emotion that we all experience at some point in our lives. However, when it comes to our faith, fear can be a significant obstacle that prevents us from faithfully following Jesus Christ.
How can we overcome fear and follow Jesus with boldness and confidence?
In Mark 8:38, Jesus gives a surprising answer to this question. Rather than telling us to stop worrying or downplaying our fears, Jesus warns us about the future. He reminds us that one day, He will return "in the glory of His Father with the holy angels," and He will reign supreme above everyone and everything that exists. Jesus deliberately shifts our focus from living in fear right now by warning us that we don't want to fear the day He returns. On that day, we don't want Him to be ashamed of us.
Jesus' point is not to scare us but to show us that His opinion of us is all that matters in life. If our focus is placed on the here and now-our comfort, fame, control, health, success, or relationships-we will never follow Jesus Christ with radical urgency. We will never sacrifice, never be bold, and never give up our lives for Jesus Christ and the sake of the Gospel.
At some point, following Jesus will cost us something. The only way that we can have the strength to surrender and submit to His leading in those moments is to have eternal hope. We need to remember that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and God in the flesh. He will return one day, and we will all stand before Him to give an account of how we led our lives.
Some may scoff at this idea, but Jesus' track record speaks for itself. He told His disciples that He would be arrested, beaten, and killed, and He was. He also told them that death could not hold Him, and on the third day, He rose again. Then, before He departed into heaven, He gave them this last word of encouragement: "I want you to follow me because one day I will return."
If Jesus was right about all these other things, it's safe to assume that He's right about this as well. He wants us to focus not just on what's happening in the moment but on the momentum of where our faith is leading us. Not just for now, but for eternity.
To overcome fear and follow Jesus with boldness and confidence, we need to keep our focus on Him and trust in His promises. We need to let go of our fears and surrender our lives to His leading. We may face challenges, but we can be confident that our hope is secure in Him. Let us strive to follow Jesus with all our hearts, knowing that one day, we will stand before Him and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Just like kids trying to look through binoculars, we often struggle to see the big picture. We can only see what's right in front of us, and our perspective is limited. But Jesus desires to activate our faith by changing our perspective. He knows that if our perspective changes, everything changes.
When we look at everything through the lens that one day Jesus Christ is going to return, we regain our eternal perspective. We stop focusing on the here and now, and start keeping the end in mind. This eternal perspective gives us the ability to follow Jesus by faith, gladly giving whatever He asks of us because we know that in the end, we will give it all up anyway.
However, one of the biggest reasons we struggle to follow Jesus is that we're looking out of the wrong end of the binoculars. We're consumed by the here and now, the little lens, and not the big, glorious picture of what God will do in the end when Jesus Christ returns.
But when we change our perspective and look at life through the lens of Jesus Christ's return, everything changes. We become more focused on what truly matters, and our faith becomes stronger.
So, if you find yourself struggling to follow Jesus Christ, take a step back and change your perspective. Don't just focus on what's happening now, but focus on what will happen when Jesus Christ returns. Your perspective changes everything, and with the right perspective, you can follow Jesus by faith, even when it's hard.
In life, we often find ourselves consumed with the present moment. We focus on the here and now, and we rarely consider the big picture. But what if our perspective changed? What if we shifted our focus from the present moment to the eternity that awaits us after this life? What if we lived our lives with the goal of winning the heavenly prize that Jesus has called us to?
The Apostle Paul understood the importance of this perspective shift. He was a man who had everything going for him, yet he sacrificed it all to follow Jesus Christ. Paul's motivation was the knowledge that one day, every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Paul's response was to forget what was behind him and strain toward what was ahead. He pressed on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called him heavenward in Christ Jesus. He lived his life with his eyes fixed on eternity, not on the moment.
Paul was not a perfect follower of Christ. He struggled, just like we do. But he knew that what kept him following Christ, even when it was tough, was his focus on the goal. He knew that Jesus was leading him toward a heavenly prize, and he kept his eyes fixed on that prize, even when he wanted to give up.
Jesus wants us to have this same perspective. He wants us to fix our focus on the eternity that awaits us, so that we might be filled with faith. He knows that when we focus on the present moment, we can easily become overwhelmed by fear and doubt. But when we focus on the goal, we can follow him with radical faith, gladly giving up whatever he asks of us because we know that in the end, we will give it all up anyway.
We need to begin to shift our focus. Stop focusing on the here and now and start keeping the end in mind. Let us look at life through the lens that one day Jesus Christ will return. Let us keep our eyes fixed on the heavenly prize that Jesus is leading us toward, so that we might follow him with radical faith, no matter what the cost.
As humans, we tend to focus on the moment, on what is happening right now. It's natural to prioritize our immediate concerns and problems. But what if we shifted our focus to what is eternal? What if we prioritized the things that truly matter in the long run? What would change in our lives?
Focusing on the eternal requires courage, especially in a world where people's opinions and judgments carry so much weight. We often fear what others will say and do to us, rather than what Jesus Christ will say about us. This fear causes us to stop following Christ and to prioritize the opinions of others over our faith.
But Jesus tells us that if we are going to fear something or someone, it should be Him. He has the power to hold us accountable in life, and He has the power to take life itself away from us. While this may seem contradictory to trust and follow someone we fear, it's not. We can't trust Jesus and follow Him if we don't fear Him.
Think about it: my kids can't fully trust me if they don't fear me. I'm bigger than they are, I keep our house secure, and I take care of those in my house. They trust me because they know I love them and I am protecting them. They don't trust themselves to protect me in our house; they trust me because I am more powerful than they are.
This same principle applies to our relationship with God. If something is more powerful than us, it's something we fear. But that fear can also create trust and respect. When we understand how powerful and protective God is, we can trust Him fully.
Courage to face challenges
Have you ever been to an escape room? If you have, you know how challenging it can be to figure out how to escape. One time, I was at an escape room with my kids, and to get the key out, we had to slide the key out of a maze with a magnet. My kids kept struggling with it because they started at where the key was currently located. But I told them to start at the end. If you start at the end, you know how to get out.
This is the courage we need in our lives. As Christians, we face many challenges and struggles that can make us afraid. We may be scared of what we might have to give up to follow Jesus. However, we should think of the end and trace it back to where we are at. We know the end of the story, and we know that in the end, Jesus wins! So why should we ever be afraid? Jesus is the conquering king who will one day return, and we should rest our hearts in the knowledge that he loves us and gave his life for us. This will give us amazing courage. This is why we have to keep an eternal perspective.
We live in a culture that wants things now. We are an instant culture focused on the present pleasure and satisfaction. The enemy wants you to trade something far better later for something inferior now. When we lose our eternal perspective, we lose focus of what is ultimately important and supremely more gratifying. Instead of living for the moment that we can see and the pleasures that we can touch, we should live in the present with an eternal focus about our choices, realizing that our present decisions affect our future. This change of focus is what produces endurance.
We must keep following Jesus, even when we face pressure to act unethically or when things seem like they are not working out. We must endure, knowing that one day, God will make everything right again. All great people who have done world-changing things for God lived with an amazing eternal perspective. They made the choice to take a step of faith because they kept their eye on what was essential and eternal. They kept following, moving towards doing great things for God, even when they could not see it, because they knew that nothing they gave up or sacrificed was given in vain.
Life is incredibly short, and what we are going through will not last forever. But what we do in this short life will last forever. We must keep our focus on eternity and endure, knowing that one day, Christ will return, and the reward will be great for those that kept following. Let us all strive to keep an eternal perspective and live with courage and endurance.
Life is short. This truth is highlighted in James 4:14 when it says, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” We get so caught up in our daily lives that we forget this reality. We become so focused on what is happening now that we miss the bigger picture. The mist is gone before we even finish saying the word mist.
Jesus asks us why we would build our whole lives on something so temporary. He reminds us that eternity gives us the endurance to know that this life will pass. Living with the understanding that our lives are like vapor is different than just living. It means that we need to hold on to what will stand, savor what matters, and make every day count for Christ.
Jesus calls us to keep an eternal perspective. His return gives us the motivation we need to stay focused on doing what is good, right, and true. We must not be easily moved or sidetracked. Instead, we need to stay focused on the big plan of what God is doing and where He is taking us.
In the midst of our struggles, we need to remind ourselves that this is not our final destination. We are on our way to a place where there will be no more sin, suffering, chaos, confusion, hurt, brokenness, or disappointment. We must hold on to our faith in Christ and keep following Him, even when it is tough. There will come a time when we look back on our struggles and realize that it was worth it.
By keeping an eternal perspective, we can change everything. The relationship we lost that we thought we couldn’t live without won’t feel like the end of the world anymore. The financial setback we thought we might never recover from will have passed. We’ll realize that God didn’t let us go hungry – in fact, He raised our faith to new heights and took our relationship with Him to another level. When we get to our eternal home, we’ll look back and laugh and dance with joy. Only by changing our focus can we produce that kind of endurance to keep following when we want to give up.
Jesus often spoke about the sacrifices that come with following him. Many people were scared to follow Jesus because they were thinking about what they would have to give up to do so. However, Jesus explains that whatever we give up to follow him, we will ultimately give up one day anyway. We can give up those things in a way that impacts the future of our souls and our eternity.
Conclusion
Following Jesus will cost us something, but refusing to follow Jesus will cost us everything. In the end, everything we hold on to so tightly will have no value if it is not aligned with what Jesus wants for our lives. We might be scared to follow Jesus because we might have to give up a relationship, a job, or a material possession that we treasure. However, Jesus warns that in the end, what will we have gained if we refuse to follow him? Everything we are trying to protect or keep out of fear of following Jesus, we will eventually give up anyway.
Jesus is leading us to something greater as we follow him, both now and into eternity. He rewards everyone who makes the decision to follow him now. Every follower of Jesus Christ will receive rewards from God based upon the works we have done as we serve Him here on Earth. Our experience in eternity and the treasures we receive in God’s kingdom will be decided by the decisions we make right now.
Following Jesus may seem like a daunting sacrifice, but it is worth it. Giving up what we treasure on earth to follow Jesus is a decision that impacts the future of our souls and eternity.
In college, I heard the story of Jim Elliot, and it had a profound impact on my life. Elliot sensed a call from the Lord to go to Ecuador and share the hope of Jesus Christ with the Auca, a fierce unreached people in the jungle. People considered him crazy. It was dangerous and he was wasting his life. But he went anyway. While attempting to share with them, Elliot and four other missionaries were speared to death, slain by those they came to minister to. To the world this is a tragedy, but to Jesus this is triumph.
What gave him the courage to go? In his journal he wrote,
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” - <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iYWOkZOS0s4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Jim Elliot.