Now great crowds were traveling with Him. So He turned and said to them:  If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, 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.  Luke 14:25-27 HCSB

It’s easy to say I’m going to follow Jesus. It’s not always so easy to follow through with it. In this scripture passage, Jesus tells this crowd that is traveling with Him that they must hate their father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and themselves and also bear their own cross. Now we know that Jesus preached love so why would He tell us that we had to hate our loved ones? Some of you may have read this and thought, great I already have a couple of those in that category. I hope not, because Jesus did not mean to hate them in your heart. Jesus meant that we have to put Him first. We have to put Him above all other things and all other people.

I have seen on several occasions a very sad situation. A family member steps out and makes a profession of faith, is baptized and is excited about following Jesus. But, then their family doesn’t support it and eventually they lose their zeal and begin to backslide. How many of us are going to get up on Sunday morning and go to church while the rest of our family sleeps in? How many of us are going to pray before the meal while everyone else is digging in? How many of us are going to sit and read our bible or our devotions while the rest of the family is watching television or buried in social media?

So the real question becomes, are you willing to follow Jesus even if it means leaving your family behind? Sadly, for many the answer to that question is no.

And for those that are willing to leave their family behind to follow Jesus, there is another issue. Jesus told them that they must hate their own lives. This is a big one. Most of us try to get our lives to a point to where we love our lives. We try to get into jobs that we love. We tend to be in relationships with people that we love. We tend to do the things that we love. Oftentimes, we mistakenly think that we have to give all this up to follow Jesus. Well, if you love things that are sinful, then yes you need to give that up. But what people often fail to realize is that peace and joy we get from a life lived with Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit is better than anything we will ever have to give up. Sadly, many people never know this because they are not willing to give up these things in order to follow Jesus.

Lastly, Jesus told them that they must be willing to bear their own cross. Jesus was speaking to Jews that had seen countless others crucified by the Romans. As we know from Jesus’ crucifixion, when you were sentenced to death by crucifixion you were expected to carry your own cross if it was physically possible. Jesus is speaking of following Him even to death. How many of us are willing to die for Jesus if that’s what it takes. He was certainly willing to die for us, but are we willing to do the same?

None of these things sound like a load of fun, right? Walking away from your family, well that one may be depending on your family, just sayin’, forsaking everything and being willing to die in order to follow Jesus. How many of us are willing to go that far? Exodus 34:14 tells us that we serve a jealous God. He wants to not only be in our lives, but He wants first place. Are you willing to give Him that today? Are you willing to give up some of the things that get in the way of serving Him wholeheartedly? He gave his one and only Son, Jesus, who came and set an example for us. He came to die on the cross so that we could have eternal life (John 3:16). Are you willing to die to yourself and your old way of life in order to follow Him?

I promise you that nothing you give up will be worth what you will get in return. You may have to think about that one for a minute, but let it sink in and give it all to God.

Have a great day!