Count the Cost

Luke 14:25-33

Count the cost?  I would rather count my blessings, thank you very much!  Cost?  Sacrifice?  That doesn't sound like fun at all.

Today's passage in Luke would not be one that an ad agency would recommend to a client hoping to boost a company's sales or their image.  Jesus does not paint a rosy picture of a life given to the Lord, does he?

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even their own life - such a person cannot be my disciple.  and whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."  (vs. 26-27).

To follow Jesus requires relinquishing your position as the center of the universe, and giving it to the Lord of the Universe.  To follow Jesus means that you ask "not my will, but your will, be done."  To follow Jesus means that you ask forgiveness for your sins, and you ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life.  To follow Jesus means this:

"In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples."  (v. 33).

In 1956, Jim Elliott, who was a missionary to the Quechua Indians in Ecuador, and 4 other missionaries, were ambushed and killed by tribesmen while they were on their way to befriend them and share the gospel.  Jim was a newlywed with a baby.  He knew that God had called him to serve in Ecuador, and he once wrote this to his wife, after reading Luke 9:24:
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."

He wrote, "he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

After Elliott and the others were martyred, his widow, Elisabeth Elliott, returned to Ecuador and many of the same Quechua Indians who were fearful of the gospel became Christians.  God indeed used evil for good, and Elliott's life was not wasted - read Elisabeth Elliott's book, Through the Gates of Splendor, for a much fuller account.

Lord, you ask for everything - all that I am; all that I have.  And I am so afraid to relinquish control.  Help me to remember that my life is yours - it is not mine to hoard.  Help me to freely, willingly, joyfully, come to you and give what is yours back to you.  Amen.