I woke up this morning with my back screaming at me. "Why? This is not fair! What did I do?" No answer. I'm frustrated and angry. I did my exercises anyway . . . barely. It's not easy to do them when my back is yapping. When I finished, my attitude still stunk. I needed God. Before settling into work mode I sat down with one of my favorite devotionals, "My Utmost for His Highest." Oswald Chambers came through again.
I will begin with the scripture, Luke 14:26. "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." This sounds harsh. Christ can't really mean that, can he? He does, but maybe not in the way we think. He doesn't want us to hate. But the people we love, including ourselves, cannot compete with our relationship with Him. Christ must come first if we truly want to be His disciples. We must hand our lives over to Him--be fully His.
Christ is not speaking about our salvation in this verse. He's talking about discipleship. To be all in, so to speak. To be His and not mine. For me that means I have to hand myself over completely, including my back. If that's part of who He wants me to be, then so be it. I will serve Him because I love Him not because He's handed me everything I want in life.
I'm all in. How about you?
Grace and peace to you from God.
Bonnie
