To be His disciple

To be His disciple

Scripture:-

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24

Observation:

“Deny myself? Take up my cross? What does Jesus mean?” The disciples must have wondered.

Let’s start by meditating on the words “whoever wants to be my disciple”. We certainly want Jesus to be our Savior, but do we really want to be His disciple? It sure doesn’t sound like fun here. Can we possibly have Jesus as Savior but not as Lord? No! To truly receive the Lord as Savior is to also follow Him as Lord! As 1 John 2:4 says,” if we say we know Him yet do not do what He commands, we lie and the truth is not in us.” Can we have Jesus as Savior without knowing Him? No! Jesus said “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me”. To come under the covering and salvation of the Lord, is to behold Him as our Lord and Master. There can be no two ways about it. We are saved wholly by grace, through faith, not by works. However, entering God’s salvation does not mean we are thereafter free to live life however we want. Rather, we must ensure that we continue in that great salvation by following the Lord as His disciple and seeking to live by His principles and teachings, in close relationship with Him.

Next, consider the words “deny ourselves”. In the Old Testament, the Israelites were asked to “deny themselves” on the Sabbath and do no work. Naturally, we human beings like to be constantly on the move, doing this and that. Even on holidays, we tend to stack up activities on our schedule and visit the most number of places. For the Israelites, choosing not to work and do business when other nations were still active also meant losing a lot of money making opportunities, and that too was part of denying one’s self.

Ultimately, to deny ourselves means to subject our will to God. We have our own plans but God has His plan. It is not easy, but to submit to God’s plan, we have to deny ourselves. His ways are higher, his thoughts are higher. We only have a very limited view but God has all history in His hands.

Another part of the difficulty in denying ourselves is our hunger for immediate satisfaction. We are impatient beings, always wanting to fulfill our immediate desires, often, with little thought for the future. When offended, we are also quick to retaliate in anger. We love shortcuts, and many fall prey easily to get rich quick schemes. However, consider how the Lord resisted temptation. He stood firm in fasting even after 40 days without eating in the desert, He forsook the easy path to receiving authority over all the kingdom of the world by refusing to bow down to the devil. He refused to be goaded by the devil’s challenge to prove He is the Son of God.

Denying ourselves is not easy. There is this struggle between the old man and the new man in us, as Paul puts it. Our old man gravitates us towards old sinful habits and desires. Our new man subjects his will to the will of God. Paul urges us to put off the old man and his evil desires but to put on the new man and conform our will to Christ. We are to reckon, to consider ourselves dead to sin by faith!

Secondly, the Lord says “Take up your cross!” We first do the passive step by denying our old man. Then we take the active step to take up our cross! What is our cross? The cross gives us the picture of sacrifice, of pain, of responsibility. Our cross is our calling, our unique, specific calling given according to God’s will. We are to first put off our own will and then actively pursue God’s will.

Finally, the Lord says “Follow me”. Is taking up our cross difficult? Yes, of course, if we strive in our own strength. In fact, on our own, we are bound to fail, to give up on our cross, and retreat, defeated. However, Jesus does not leave us alone. We have our cross but we have a great Savior who helps us. Remember that Jesus says “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. When we follow Jesus, it really makes all the difference. But how do we follow Jesus? Two main ways. Firstly, He has given us His teachings in the Gospels, further expounded in the book of Acts and the Letters of the New Testament. Secondly, we follow Jesus on a daily basis in close relationship with Him, through our prayer life, seeking His presence daily and aiming to live by the guidance of the Spirit of Jesus whom He has given us.

Application:

Let us commit this three step process of our Christian walk to memory. Deny ourselves, take up our cross, follow Jesus. As we live life in general, start with the main goal to follow Jesus. Ask the Lord to send us His Spirit in greater measure and presence to guide us. Inevitably, moments will come in the day, when we find a conflict within us between what we feel like doing or not doing and what we know we should be doing or not doing. These are the times when we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross. In such times, remember that our victory comes in following Jesus, so take a moment to close our eyes and envision the Lord before us, seeking to obey Him.

Prayer:

We praise You, Lord Jesus, for the power of Thy name. We praise thee for all You have done, and all You continue to do for us, interceding for us, blessing us, giving us strength and hope. Teach us, dear Lord, to walk in obedience with you, difficult though it may be, to crucify our flesh and our earthly desires. Teach us, Lord, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and to follow You, just like Your early disciples did. We submit our lives to You, O Lord. Your thoughts are higher than ours. Your ways are greater. In You only shall we have hope! In Jesus name, Amen.