Lose Yourself

Scripture:
Matthew 16:25 — “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Observation:
We get a great picture of the cost/reward for following Christ. This seems like such an odd thing to read and understand. From the initial look it almost doesn’t even makes sense. If we are going to save something we don’t lose it and when we lose something we don’t usually find it. Christ is saying that we must be willing to give up everything… to lose our life to His calling and His path for our lives. We must be willing to NOT live for self and live for Christ. Once we give up and give in… we allow God to take our broken lives and bring restoration and newness to them. We lose the life lived for the world and gain a life that has eternal value and significance.

Application:
I realize that Christ has called me to give up my ways, thoughts, desires, goals, and ambitions to a higher calling. He has called me to live life with one goal in mind: to follow Him. He wants my ways, thoughts, desires, goals, and ambitions to be those that He has led me too. If we are going to “save our life” we have to be willing to lose it into the hands of Christ. We have to be okay with whatever that paths looks like. For me that path went from a path of professional golf to a job at a church. It went from living life the way I wanted on the weekends too living life so that people see Christ in me everyday of the week. He has called us to something so much bigger than our small minds can comprehend. One of the amazing things is that this God who has the power to change lives desires to do so on a very personal level each and every day. He simply calls us to deny self and follow Him… to lose our lives for His sake.

Prayer:
Lord, please help me to see the areas that I’m not so freely willing to let go of. Please help me to not only say I value you more… but live in such a way that allows people to see that truth in my life. Lord, help me to be patient with what you have called me too. I know that when I don’t know where I’m headed… I tend to not stay focused and faithful. I want to be a man who loses himself for your sake.

— Jason Stoker, middle school pastor, Reservoir campus