“Every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” —Luke 14:33
In the latter part of Luke 14, we find Jesus surrounded by a large crowd. He never played to the audience, however. He knew that when some heard His message, they would lose interest. Yet that didn’t keep Him from being straightforward.
Jesus looked at the crowd and said, in effect, “If you want to follow Me, you need to understand what’s involved.” He didn’t speak in sweeping generalities; rather He identified specific issues that must be surrendered by His followers— things like our relationships, our physical bodies, our rights, our possessions.
It’s one thing to have an emotional experience at a Christian gathering where you’re inspired to yield control of everything to God. It’s another matter to live out that surrender—when you get home from the conference, when you lose your job, when your mate is diagnosed with a terminal illness.
The extent of your discipleship will be determined in the laboratory of life, through daily, moment-by-moment choices and responses that reveal how surrendered you really are to following Christ.
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The Quiet Place: Daily Devotional Readings ©2012 Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible ®. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible ® and CSB ® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Make it Personal
Spend time in prayer, surrendering every part of your life to the Lord and asking Him to work out that surrender every day.