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The opening line of this song says:

I’m a little scared to sing this song

Cause I know it’s coming with a cost

But You said I got to die to live

So God I’m picking up my cross

I remember wrestling through these lyrics as I considered the invitation that Jesus gave again and again throughout the Gospels when He says, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24 CSB).

The reality is that Jesus never said this would be easy. In fact, he prepared His disciples for the opposite in Luke 14:33 (ESV) with these sobering words, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” What a radical invitation!

Every follower of Jesus is invited down a narrow but beautiful road. Many will prefer the easy way, but Jesus begins to unpack the secret for His followers when He says in Matthew 7 that this seemingly unattractive path of sacrifice actually leads to life! Jesus is passionate about providing abundant life to His children! In one conversation, He tells His disciples that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10 NIV).

But here is the great paradox of the Gospel…

Matthew 10:39 (NIV) says, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

If we truly want to follow Jesus with our life, then our life is something we must lose. The Apostle Paul says it like this: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 NLT).

C.S. Lewis once said “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become–because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be.”

What if this great paradox is actually an invitation to great peace and fullness of life? There is nothing that we can give up to God that He did not first generously give to us, and every time we give up ourselves, we make room for Him to fill us with His abundance! This is why later in the song I wrote:

God, I’ll give You anything You ask

Nothing I have You didn’t give me first

And I gladly give it all back

It’s like trading in a star to get the universe.

Why is Jesus worthy of giving up everything for? Well, because that is exactly what He did for you, and for me, and for the world He loves so much! We are not asked to do anything that Jesus did not first do for us! I once heard a pastor say, “We cannot call ourselves followers of Jesus and expect an easier life than He had.”

We only pick up our cross because Jesus picked up the Cross first. We only give up our lives because Jesus gave up His life first! John makes this very clear in his letter to the Church when he wrote, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NIV).

So, when it feels like following Jesus is costing you greatly, remember this promise from Him: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV).

The greatest response we can have to the radical love of Jesus giving up His life and picking up His cross is to worship Him in the same manner. This cannot just be with music and song but must be with our whole life! May we not settle for giving Jesus some of us, or even most of us, may we relentlessly follow Him in such a way that He may have ALL of us!

Key Questions:

1. What areas in your life have you been holding back from God? What fear do you have in fully surrendering to God?

2. What would it look like for you to spend time meditating on the enormity of the sacrifice that Jesus made for you? How can this propel you to give more of yourself?

3. Who in your life can you include on this journey of giving over to God your whole life?