Following Christ

Following Christ is a commitment.

To let go and surrender all that I am and all that I have to him and his purposes. It’s a walk on the death row, carrying my cross daily and witnessing to an unbelieving world. It is the desire to delight in his presence daily instead of indulging myself in the empty entertainment the world has to offer. It is the discipline of denying myself of the desires of my flesh and submitting to the perfect will of the Holy Spirit.

Do I fall short? Yes, all the time, but my heart longs more than ever to please my master. My response to the sin I can see in my life is to repent and beg the Lord for mercy because only He can forgive and save me to the uttermost.

I will no longer make excuses for sin or the evil in my heart, but I will pray to the Lord, and he will help me to examine myself accurately so that I don’t fall into a delusion about my true spiritual state.  I know that it is only by the mercies of God that the scales have been removed from my eyes, and I refuse to self-impose new scales in order to live an easy yet vain life of serving myself.

Christ is worthy of my obedience and submission. If he being God in the flesh submitted to the will of the Father, who am I to resist him? Who am I to stick my chest up at him and continue to live in sin or live for the things of this world? God Forbid!

Following Christ will cost me now – I will not be able to indulge my flesh, seek to please myself, pursue my own earthly, selfish ambitions. I’ll experience sufferings, pain and hurt as a result of my sin and the sins of others. I may be ridiculed and shamed because of my faith, but none of this can compare to the joy I’ll have of knowing Christ and being known by him.

Everything I give up for him in this life will be added back to me many times over in this life and even the next. The hope I have of seeing him face to face and having him crown me in his glory whilst saying to me “well done” makes it all worth it.

So, following Christ is a commitment.

Today I am renewing my commitment to him, and by His grace deepening my devotion to Him. I will not relent, I will not turn back, I will not compromise and nor will I be quiet. I will carry my cross and follow Jesus until the day I die.