22 But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”
23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
Matthew 16:22-26
Dear God, I am seeing things from my point of view and not from yours (verse 23). That seems like the story of my life sometimes. I try to see them from your perspective, but my own selfish agenda gets in the way. The idea of truly giving up my own way and letting go of my life instead of hanging on is hard. To really understand that striving for worldly gain will likely…there I go again, inserting the word “likely” like it’s a probability and not a certainty like Jesus said. Let me try again. To really understand that striving for worldly gain will cost me my soul. That’s harsh.
Upton Sinclair, in his book I, Candidate for Governor, and How I Got Licked apparently said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” I was listening to an interview this morning with a sports writer in Austin named Cedric Golden talking about recruiting in college athletics. In it, he said, “I think the new way of doing business is more financial. I’d love to say that it’s all about going into moms’ and dads’ living rooms and saying, ‘We’re going to take care of your kid for the next four years. He’s going to get a degree, and blah, blah, blah.’ That game has changed. When [the University of Texas] had their first official visiting day of the football players a couple of weeks ago, they had six Lamborghinis parked at the facilities, engines revving.” I was so disgusted. Not with UT, but with the state of college athletics overall. So much for telling our children there is more to life than money. There is no measure by which they can tell that by many of our lives.
Father, that includes me. Yes, I’ve passed up more lucrative opportunities to stay in my current position, but I also make a pretty decent living and have a comfortable lifestyle. Am I someone who is willing to have my mind changed when it will materially cost me something? Am I willing to let go of my life? Am I willing to consider my life worth nothing to me (Acts 20:24)? Holy Spirit, nudge me today. Show me when I am being selfish and self-serving. Show me when I am judging someone else and not exhibiting your love. Show me the opportunities you have for me to be your hands and feet and help me to not miss them. Help me to love you with everything I have and to then follow that up with loving my neighbor as much as I love myself.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Emails to God 