Luke 14 vs 25 – 27 & 33 (NKJV)
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
We are continuing to look at Jesus’s words in Luke 14. From verses 25, He says some really tough things and you can wonder, what does this mean? What is Jesus saying here? He is saying that even though our parents, spouses, children, siblings, and even our own lives are very important to us, He must be more important to us than any of these.
The sets of people Jesus mentioned here are the closest each one of us can have as a person They normally are the dearest to us. The ones we can do anything for. The ones we will gladly spend for and be spent for. The ones we will go the extra mile for. Parents will go any length for their children. They will starve just to feed their children or give their children an education. We will forgo sleep and much more for a love one if the circumstances demanded it.
Yet Jesus is saying in as much as we love these family members so much that we could even give our eyes for them, when it comes to our relationship with Him, we must love Him more. We must choose Him first. We must put Him first. We must value Him more than these. He must be more precious to us even than these. We must continually follow after Him even though we have families to look after and cater for. We must follow Him with our challenges, in our trials and hardships, knowing that He loves us and has a good plan for our lives. This is what Jesus’ disciples of old had to do and that is what we need to do. This is the essence of being a true disciple.
The bottom line of this verses of scripture is that not even our closest and dearest family members must come between us and Jesus. That is a tall order to follow, but we can by His grace. We can do this through Christ who strengthens us. We can do it as we live and walk, and are led by the Spirit.
I pray that each one of us ladies will be transformed by the renewing of our mind to fully comprehend what Jesus is asking of us as His disciples. His grace will enable us…..