July 22nd

July 22nd -- Mark 8:22-9:1 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%208:22-9:1&version=NLT)

I'm gonna' only look at one small part. 8:34-38. I think this is such an important command to hear. We have to lose our life to save it. Sounds pretty paradoxical, right? Think of it this way - we lose it because we give it to God. Now, you must be wondering how that's a loss, right? It is. Surrendering it to God means we recognize that we are laying it down and saying "Your plan, Lord, not mine." Oftentimes, we may not feel God's plan coincides with ours (or, rather, vice-versa because His is the perfect plan in the end). We may want to have a nice, easy life. God may want to push us because He knows we can't be a worker for His Kingdom if we don't have to face some hardships. He doesn't ever put us through anything more than He needs to, and His plan for us has our best interest in mind. It's our best eternal interest, though, if not necessarily always best for our time on earth, because that is but a blink of an eye in eternity. SO, oftentimes, due to that, we try and cling to our own plans. We want our life, not God's life. We hold on to ours. That's how we lose it. We need to hold to God's to keep it. We hold our momentary earthly lives and lose our eternal ones. God wants us to surrender our momentary earthly ones so He can give us far better eternal ones. So, really, we don't lose when we "lose" our life, but instead we gain more than anything we could hope to gain on earth or on our own. It sounds like a bad deal, and it's a challenging offer to take, but it's so much more than worth it. Lose your life and accept God's life - it may be tougher but it's got a better final reward.

That's all for today! God bless! Shalom!