Written By Ben Dankaka
Meditation – Luke 14:27
One of the most frequently asked questions in Christianity is, “have you given your life to Christ?” This may seem like an easy question to answer because when we profess our faith in Jesus, it is presumed we have given our lives to Jesus. But the idea of giving our lives to Christ is much more than that. The truth is; when we give our lives to Christ, He becomes our Lord. Now the word, “Lord” means Master. It also means Owner. So when we truly accept Jesus as our Lord, He becomes our Master and Owner.
As your Master, Jesus takes responsibility for everything that goes on in your life. Therefore, to accept Jesus, does not only involve a declaration of our faith in Him. True acceptance happens when we follow Jesus. You might have noticed that Jesus often used the words, “follow me” as He was selecting His disciples. He made it clear that the cost of discipleship had to do with following Him. On one occasion, He said to the crowd, “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple”.
There’s a reason why Jesus insists that we “follow” Him. For Jesus to act as our Lord, we are required to stop following any other person, including ourselves. When Jesus becomes your Master, you are not permitted to have any other Master, except Him. Jesus expects us to “follow him” because He is the good Shepherd and every good Shepherd is followed by his sheep. When Jesus becomes our Shepherd, we automatically become His sheep. That way, we can recognize His voice when He speaks to us. You see, Jesus isn’t trying to take away the life He gave you; He wants to “save” it by helping you refine it. I know this, because that was what He did when the disciples followed Him. Jesus refined the lives of His disciples. He turned fishermen into fishers of men. He turned a tax collector into an author, whose book has impacted billions of people. He turned a killer to a life saver. Yes, when you follow Jesus, He refines your life.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, be my Lord. Amen.
REFERENCES/FURTHER STUDY: Luke 14:27
Unless otherwise stated all scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version.