For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure - Philippians 2:13
The decision to become a Christian is undoubtedly the most important decision a person can make.
To be a Christian is not simply to change something about your life, it is to give up the entirety of your life itself.
The word Christian means "follower of Christ."
This is what Jesus said about what it costs to follow Him:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. - Luke 9:23-24
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ - Luke 14:27-30
Everyone is invited to become a disciple of Jesus, but certainly not everyone is willing to pay the price to follow Jesus - our entire lives. If we are not willing to sacrifice our entire lives for Jesus then He tells us point blank that we can't follow Him.
But being a Christian is not fundamentally about what we sacrifice, it is about what we receive - namely the Holy Spirit.
In other words, yes we pay a steep price: our own life. But in return we receive something far greater: God's Life.
Then we can say with Paul, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal 2:20)
The reason Jesus tells us that His "yoke easy and burden is light" despite commanding us to do something that on the surface seems exceedingly difficult - denying ourselves, bearing our cross, and following in the Son of God's footsteps - is because it is not actually us doing anything. It is God doing everything in us.
All we have to do is yield to Him, listen to His voice, and move when He says move.
God does not accomplish His will most effectively through the smartest or the strongest man, but through the man who is most fully and totally surrendered to His will.
This man will be guided by the Holy Spirit, and will accomplish much yet never seem to be in a rush. He will always seem to be in the right place at the right time. He will make great sacrifices yet never seem to be lacking anything.
This is the life Christ calls us to. And this is the life God longs to live in each of us, if only we will let Him in.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” - 2 Cor 12:9
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