Understanding God, Myself, and the WorldSample

The call of discipleship

Almost all of us have ambitions, dreams, and goals in life. Some of us want to achieve great success in our careers. Some of us want to become as wealthy as possible so that we can be happy and live in comfort. Some of us want to have a great marriage and family. We feel that if we achieve these things, we will have truly fulfilled our purpose in life. While having these kinds of aspirations is not wrong in itself, we often equate our personal ambitions and goals with God’s call over our lives. Now, God can use our job, finances, or family life for His purposes, but personal ambition and success are not what following Jesus is ultimately all about. Discipleship ultimately means that we follow Jesus in order to become like Him and to do the things that He does. More so, discipleship means that we are willing to even let go of the things that we hold dear in life for the sake of participating in the mission of God to establish His Kingdom here on earth. In the kingdom of the world, people want to reach the top and be the best, even if it means stepping on others in the process. In the Kingdom of God, we deny ourselves so that we can serve others and thereby participate in the greatest project of all time – the mission of God. 

Perhaps the passage in Luke 14:25–35 hits a modern audience the hardest with the demand of Jesus that following Him implies picking up a cross to die. Death is not something we associate with a worthy goal. We would like to build a good life, not die! But following Jesus also means being willing to die for Jesus. Jesus, who is God Himself, emptied Himself on the Cross for the sake of all of humanity. If we are to follow Him, then we also need to pick up our cross and die, not only to this world, but to ourselves. 

Are we willing to go to that extreme? Is our passion for Jesus and His mission more important than anything else in our lives? Are we willing to give up our ambitions and dreams to be successful and happy in life for the sake of the greater call of participating in the mission of God? 

Think about the blessings we have received from God (the Kingdom we inherited from God). How has following Jesus blessed your life? What sort of discomfort, pain, suffering, or change of mind did you have to endure to follow Jesus?