Sacrifice

 When i saw this verse today in my email, i thought about what it means to lose our life for God. When we read Matthew 16:25 we may say to ourselves..."this is going to be hard" and i will be the first to admit that it is but it's so worth it in the end! As the verse says, "but whoever loses their life for me will find it"...so when we lose our life for God we are actually finding life in him. I love this verse. So i went to the message version and my heart was once again filled up with him! Jesus basically tells his disciples when he comes to them to drop their nets and follow him (see Luke). And they did..wow..that takes a lot  of courage. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the drivers seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how".  Were not in the drivers seat God is, which i must admit it is hard sometimes to let go of that control that we all want over are lives. But we have to because God has way better plans for all of us than we could ever make ourselves. He's the one in control, not us...as much as we try to be. In the end we all come to the realization that we can't do it on our own...i am definitely guilty of this--you know, thinking i can do it on my own when i really can't...cause i need God to help me through it. I've learned that this summer, that whatever suffering comes my way i need to embrace it because through that suffering, i have grown more and more into the godly women that he wants me to be. His unfailing love, keeps me going...and let me tell you this--the sacrifice is totally worth it! My prayer is that you would put God in the drivers seat of your life and not yourself...because he's got way better plans than us!

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it"- Matthew 16:25

"Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?"- verses 24-26 (the message version)