SOULCON ChallengeSample

A Call To SACRIFICE, Not COMFORT

"If by excessive labor, we die before the average age of man, worn out in the Master’s service, then glory be to God, we shall have so much less of earth and so much more of Heaven… It is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus. We are not to be living specimens of men in fine preservation, but living sacrifices, whose lot is to be consumed." Charles Spurgeon

This devotion is specifically for the man who is a warrior on the inside, the man who longs for the fight, the man who desires to please God but constantly struggles. If that’s you, you are going to truly enjoy these next seven days, and what I pray turns into a lifestyle. 

I join the ranks with everyone reading this about the difficulty of submitting to the Holy Spirit and pursuing Christ with my entire life. There are so many areas where I am selfish, where I would rather coddle my flesh than crucify it. But that’s not what Jesus calls us to do. Jesus calls us to come and die, daily, because He knows when we die to ourselves, it’s the only way we will ever truly live. 

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. Luke 9:23-24 (NKJV) 

There are a lot of people that say and preach that following Jesus is easy and always enjoyable. Those people must have overlooked this passage. To me, I hear it as one of the most challenging things Jesus ever said. This is a challenge from our Commander in Chief to live like He lived on this earth –to live to please God and not ourselves. To submit the control of our mind, our will, and our emotions to the Holy Spirit daily. A challenge to live to love God and love others by laying our lives down for them just like Jesus did.

As men we need to understand that to be the most effective on this earth for Jesus Christ, to live in holiness by walking in the Spirit is not an option, but a necessity. The pursuit of holiness is impossible if we don’t stay submitted to and clothed in the Holy Spirit. We need real transparent men, who understand their need for the cross of Jesus every day and are willing to confess their sins to one another.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time relating to the guy who is never real about any of his issues, who never admits that he struggles, and who is never honest about having lustful thoughts. I need to be around men who are transparent about this life being difficult, men who struggle in their pursuit of God’s call to be holy. I promise, there is not one man on this earth who will ever say following Jesus with your whole life is boring. We need  a challenge, we need the thrill of the hunt, we need for the “boring” Christian life to be a distant memory...