Counting The Cost

There is undoubtedly a cost to being a Christian. The words of Jesus Christ are clear in Luke 14:25-33

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  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.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

The cost that we bear as disciples will differ for each one of us but will often be hard and painful but I can assure you that the Lord is in control. He is at work in and through our suffering. My own experience of loss is the relationship with my children. My heart is broken, my eyes are often filled with tears, my prayers are often times of weeping to the Lord, seeking His grace and mercy. And yet, as we seek the Lord in the midst our struggles He is ever gracious, He upholds and strengthens, He comforts and weeps with us. The cost of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not in vain. Saving His sheep cost Him far more than we can ever comprehend. The perfect Holy righteous God came willingly from the glory of Heaven, in the likeness of man to a sinful, God rejecting world to lay down His life. When we suffer the cost let us be reminded of the greater cost to Christ. Whatever we may lose in this life, no matter how painful, cannot compare to the very treasure that we gain. Christ Himself. He is most certainly the most gracious gift, we have an eternal future of glory with the Lord, Our suffering, our pain will one day come to an end. My prayer is that we would allow that to be the focus of our hearts, even more so as we count the cost and as we suffer for Christ in this life. Let us be encouraged to know that we are not alone and to rejoice in all things knowing that "if God is for us, who can be against us" Romans 8:31-39 As Christians we must be prepared to lay ALL that we have and give ALL that we are before Him, for He is the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, The pearl of great price.

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18