�I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me��(Galatians 2:20)
Have you died a good death? Have you been crucified? Or is the old �you� still resurrecting every now and then?
A preacher went to preach Jesus in Africa. While he was preaching to a group of people, an old man all-excited said, �Oh Jesus, he lived here a number of years back. His tomb is still here in this village�. The old man led the preacher to a graveyard and showed him a tomb. The tomb was that of an evangelist who lived in those areas preaching the gospel.
I believe this evangelist died a good death even before he really died in his body. He had been crucified with Christ so well, that Christ could live in Him. People who saw this evangelist, didn�t see him, but Jesus. Can people look at you and say, �Oh Jesus is alive today.�?
Jesus told us, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me."(Luke 9:23)
What is this cross Jesus speaking about here? Many Christians have made their own crosses, when in actuality it was no cross at all. The cross Jesus speaks here is a place where your will and God's will crosses. What are you going to do at this point? Jesus instructs us to deny ourselves at this point. Carry the cross so that you can die on it daily. Paul practiced this. He said in 1 Corinthians 15:31" I die daily". Are you dying to yourself daily or are you doing your own thing?
You may be holding onto something in your life, thinking �If I give up this, there would be no meaning to life�. May be it�s that smoking habit of yours, or some other unholy habit that doesn�t glorify God. Are you ready to die at this point?
I would like to call these things that hinder you from God�s best, as a �corn�. Say you have a corn in your hand, and you refuse to give it up thinking of how precious it is. But have you thought what would happen if you�d just put it down on the ground? You could get a harvest! God never tells you to give up on something unless he wants to bless you more. May be it's a job that a company is offering you, but you know well within you God's plan for you is something else. Will you give up that little corn?
I remember, around five years back I didn't get through my medical entrance at the first attempt and my parents wanted me to join Bioinformatics in a college called VIT. I refused to go for it, because I wanted to be a doctor and not an engineer. I knew well within in me that it wasn't God's will for me to be a doctor, but I still persisted in walking in the permissible will. My friends, there's nothing more horrible than not standing in the whole will of God. I repeated my medical entrance and didn't get through the second time either. But God was faithful, and He brought me to VIT, and gave me the same branch my parents wanted me to be in.
Think about that! I wasted one full year because I was outside the complete will of God. Don't make the same mistake I made, but learn to trust His ways. His ways are always perfect. You can't better them.
I encourage you this week, to give up things that God has been telling you to give up, and expect blessings from Him in return. Remember, there is no defeat in Jesus Christ.
Yours in His divine will,
Sidharth Mohandas