Willing To Die

Luke 11:52

52 “What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.”

                      

These several passages of scripture from Jesus are very important to understand. In this passage of scripture, Jesus was invited to eat with one of the Pharisees for dinner. The Jewish custom was to wash your hands before you eat anything so you would be considered clean. Jesus told him that he should look into the inside of his heart and not do things just for outward appearance.

There are many dangers that await those who do things for personal gain and for outward rewards. Jesus said that those who do these things get their reward in full. When we do things for the sake of getting nothing back in return, I believe we have understood what Jesus was talking about. There are several instances where Jesus says to do things quietly and without being noticed. God will bless you when you do things for him, but not for the acceptance of others.

Many fall into this trap of wanting to be accepted and loved by others. Jesus’ intentions were to die for you and for me. He knew going into it, it was going to be a hard road. He chose to die and suffer on our behalf while everyone rejected him. The disciples were also faced with this same situation. They all died for their faithfulness to Jesus. We have to be willing to suffer the same death if we want to gain eternal life. We might not ever be faced with death like the disciples did, but our attitude should be the same as theirs if we ever were. Jesus said, “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.”

Dear Jesus, help me to live out my life for your plans and purposes. Help me to have the same attitude like you and the disciples did. Help me to realize the only way to live is to die to myself daily and even be willing to die for your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen!