October 2: Luke 9:57-62
Key Verse: Luke 9:62
Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Devotion:
How many times have you heard someone say how much God loves you or how much we should love Him? How many of those times have they told you it would be such a wonderful life and times if you would follow Christ? How many times has someone stopped to tell you the truth about how much it will cost to follow Christ?
I may live in a country where I am free to follow God and free to talk about Him in public – but there are so many places in our world today where we are not allow to openly say we follow Christ for fear of being imprisoned or breaking some sort of law! God does not want us to think following Him is going to be a piece of cake and everything will run smoothly as soon as we do follow Him.
Jesus warned the disciples and others around Him they would have to put up with many things such as being persecuted if they chose to follow Him. They would have to face that because of the law of the land which mankind had created to suit themselves – not because it was the wrong thing to do!
Here we are reminded of just some of the costs of following Christ. We risk alienating our friends and family at times because we choose to follow Christ. We may well come up against all manner of bad things just as we know Job faced. None of these things are created by God, but by man for mankind. God wants us to buck the trend and to submit to His ways and His will in our lives instead.
Points to Ponder:
Are you willing to stand up for Jesus?
Are you willing to face persecution just because you love Jesus?