You have been a Christian for a while. How are you doing on the maturity scale? Are you eating the meat of the Scriptures or still on milk? Are you spending time daily in reading your Bible? And how about daily devotions?
Now is the time to put all your shortcomings behind you. It is, also, time to put all those accomplishments behind you. Get started making spiritual progress for the kingdom of God. God’s plan took priority in eighteen-year-old Jonathan Edward’s life. He wrote in his journal, “Resolved that all men should live for the glory of God. Resolved secondly that, whether or not anyone else does, I will.” That single decision impacts all other decisions you will make. To live totally for the glory of God is your supreme challenge. It is the essential decision to growing in Christ.
Jesus is in a dialogue with His disciples. He is giving some one-on-one teaching; He is telling them the cost of being His disciple. “And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:38-39). Jesus starts by telling those apostles that all the daily trials that this life has for them, as being His followers, must be endured to be a follower of Christ. Next, He tells them the way they are to endure those daily trials is to live their lives according to His teaching. It is, when you do what you want in life, that you actually lose your life.
Scripture often uses the word “now.” The urgency of Christ’s teaching in this passage is that the shift from doing what you want to totally obeying Christ must happen now. Now is the time to get serious doing what Christ is telling you to do. Do it right now!
