Your love for Jesus

Your love for Jesus should exceed even the greatest love you have for those closest to you. Jesus continues, ‘Those who do not take up their cross and follow me are not worthy of me. Those who find their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives for my sake will find them’ (vv.38–39). Perhaps this is what the apostle Paul means when he urges us ‘to offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice’ (Romans 12:1). This is the way in which you discover God’s will for your life, ‘his good, pleasing and perfect will’ (v.2). If you want God to use you more, if you want to accelerate, you must be willing to embrace this kind of sacrifice. Nothing you do in the service of Jesus is wasted. Jesus says, ‘Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing’ (Matthew 10:42, MSG).