This morning, I have been reminded that I must count the cost.
I must count the cost of doing this dollar/dollar fifty a day diet. I have to confess that in the gluttony and physical wearyness of my mind and body yesterday evening, I consumed more chocolate than I have in the past few months combined. It was sickening, and I woke up nauseous this morning. I forgot the cost.
After a breakfast of oatmeal and milk, I read this and turned to various passages in Matthew and Luke, specifically Luke 14:26-33:
I must count the cost of doing this dollar/dollar fifty a day diet. I have to confess that in the gluttony and physical wearyness of my mind and body yesterday evening, I consumed more chocolate than I have in the past few months combined. It was sickening, and I woke up nauseous this morning. I forgot the cost.
After a breakfast of oatmeal and milk, I read this and turned to various passages in Matthew and Luke, specifically Luke 14:26-33:
26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not [a]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.
27Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28 For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
32 Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends [b]a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
33 So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
Much more than just this diet, I must count the cost of being a disciple of Christ. This cost is great and was not commanded lightly. Luke 9: 57-62 says this:
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus[a] said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
This is very heavy on my heart right now. God is calling me to a complete surrender, to a letting go of people in my life and the possessions that I own. I am going to spend the rest of this day fasting and seeking more of what this means in my life.
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