All week long, I have been brooding and thinking about the price, the cost to follow Jesus. The things that it may cost Christians to do God’s absolute will per time. Because the truth is, it may not exactly be an easy journey to follow Jesus. As we walk with Him, there would come a lot of things that may try to contend with our attention and focus on Jesus. There would come tough decisions that we would have to make in order to honor Jesus. Like choosing to keep mute in the face of a heated interaction where the other party is literally calling you a fool. Like the times we sacrifice to commune with the father, to stay in His presence instead of doing other pleasurable things. The conscious effort we make not to backbite or gossip about people when the flesh screams out for us to indulge. These choices may come in different forms and shapes to every one of us but the goal remains the same- to do the perfect will of God, to see Him honored and Glorified in our lives.
I listened to a number of sermons that pointed out to me the choices that we may have to make in order to follow Jesus with all of our hearts. One of the pastors I listened to was Pastor Mildred Kingsley-Okonkwo, she did a podcast series with the theme “what is it costing you?”. In an episode, she shed light on things it cost Mary the mother of Jesus to do God’s will in carrying and birthing the savior of the world- Jesus Christ. In another episode, she shares what it cost Mary, the friend of Jesus to worship Jesus with her alabaster box of oil. And here she shares what it cost Rahab to help God’s people, the list goes on on her podcast channel. And even more through scriptures, if we closely examine the lives of men and women of God who went all out for the Lord, it really did cost them things. After all, Jesus tells us that he who decides to follow Him should keep his/her eyes on the plow without looking back – Luke 9:62. For example, Moses had a family to tend to which included his wives and children yet he sacrificed days, months to be away from his family in order to go deliver the Israelites out of bondage which was God’s will. Noah had to foolishly keep building an ark for about 120 years for a flood that was out of sight. I can only imagine the things he had to sacrifice, time, money, and perhaps friendships with people who did not understand how a man would keep building a humongous ark on dry land.
And my dear Jesus Christ did a great job in modeling what it looks like to give up everything to follow God’s absolute will. Asides from leaving the beauty and comfort of heaven, He showed us and spoke to us about how He lived only to do the father’s will. As a child, instead of whiling away time, He spent it in the temple studying God’s word, learning from Rabbis at the temple. Did He have a choice? Perhaps Yes! He could have decided to do the things that other children did, perhaps play around, or just be idle. The time came for Him to be alone in the wilderness with His father, he sacrificed the company of friends and family in order to commune with His father in seclusion for forty days. This lifestyle of complete surrender continued for Jesus. The climax of it all was at the garden of Gethsemane, where He had the last chance to go back on the plan of salvation. He had the choice to forego the plan of going to the cross but He asked God passionately for strength and reaffirmed His desire to do only God’s will. God heard Him and sent Him strength to go all the way to the cross to bring salvation to the whole of mankind. The world would have remained in complete darkness if not for the light that Jesus brought, the world would still be condemned to eternal destruction if not for Jesus’ complete surrender to do God’s will.
God is counting on us to do His absolute will wherever it is that we may find ourselves. Perhaps His instruction for you to show love to someone who keeps raining curses on you would lead that person to salvation. Perhaps your obedience to one instruction could be the saving grace for a whole lineage. Trust me, I know what it means to do God’s perfect will per time, some of them are easy to do and achieve, others I struggle so hard to do and I beg Him daily for the strength to do them, to follow Him at all cost.
As I end this blog post today, I pray from the depths of my heart for you and me that we are eternally strengthened to follow Jesus Christ come what it may cost us, Amen,