Either Be All In Or
don’t waist your time.
We want certain things in our lives to change and we often,
eventually,
after trying everything else,
ask God.
And sometimes he gives us what we ask for,
which is certainly a pleasant surprise.
And this blessing may empower us
for a while at least
to sing his praises.
But honestly,
it is usually fleeting.
Eventually a new problem crops up and we repeat the process.
And again
God might answer our prayer and give us what we request.
However, there will come a time or times when his answer is not to our satisfaction.
What then?
Well, the answer to this dilemma will reflect on how we see God.
Almighty God is either a vending machine or our good good father, and like earthly parents know when and how to both give and deny their children’s requests, our Heavenly Father (if this is how we truly see him) does the same thing.
For, in the end, he is not about making our lives easy
(sorry if you have been lead to believe otherwise)
but he is all about transforming us into the very likeness of Jesus Christ.
Will this be accomplished completely in this life time?
I doubt it,
but death will not end his intended process.
If I'm wrong, let me know on the other side.
Now great crowds accompanied [Jesus], and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.