The Cost Of Discipleship

We're notorious for making quick decisions without counting the costs. There's a reason the checkout lanes at any supermarket are loaded with all kinds of stuff that we really don't need. Anything from candy to drinks to magazines and newspapers are there. You'll even find little gadgets that belong on a late night infomercials hanging up close to the checkouts. Its not anything you would go into the store specifically to get but they're banking on you falling victim to the impulse buy and not really counting the cost towards your budget.

Much in the same way the devil likes to dangle things in our way that distract us spirituality and causes us to make that "impulse buy" on something that's not healthy for our walk with Christ. We'll buy into pornography, pride, jealousy, greed, anger or anything else the devil can sell us without ever thinking about what its costing us in terms of our relationship to God, other people or even our self-esteem. Obviously nothing is free in today's world and even our salvation came at the expense of Jesus. That's why in Luke 9:23 He reminds us about the cost of following him.

²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

The Greek word for deny here is "Arneomai" which means to refuse or to disown someone or something. Too often we fail to count the cost of disowning ourselves when it comes to following Jesus. Its no longer about me and what I want but rather about Jesus and what He wants. My natural desire will always be to cry out against the things of God and try and forge my own path. That's why on a daily basis Jesus is asking me to "disown" who I am and to conform to who He wants me to be. I accomplish this by:

* Taking up my cross - The verb here is Greek "airo" meaning to "lift up, take up, pick up" and carry. If you were a person carrying a cross it meant that you were marked for death. You sentence had been handed down and you were doomed. At the moment I gave my life to Christ I surrendered control of who I was to Him. You could say that I marked myself for death so that I could daily live for Jesus. Every day we are needed reminders that we belong to a higher calling and our old patterns of living are gone as if they're deceased.

* Following Christ - The weight of carrying a cross would cause someone to stoop over and not allow them to walk completely upright. The only way to get to where you were going was to watch the feet of the person in front of you and walk everywhere they walked as you were being led. You get the point here? If we truly want to go where Jesus is taking us then we must be focused on walking in his footsteps. That would require drowning out the distractions of everyday life and seeking the blessings of Christ.

So how about it? Are you ready to walk in the footsteps of Jesus? Are you ready to count the cost and sell out for discipleship?