23-Feb-2024 – Do you have guts to die daily for Jesus?
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain – Philippians 1:21
This is a very inspiring yet challenging verse in the Bible. Here Paul was conveying that for him, to live is living like Christ and living by reflecting the nature of Christ. To die is gain for him because when he dies, he is dying as a believer in Jesus Christ. He knew that he will be welcomed by the Father in heaven.
But our today’s focus is “to die”. Can we die for Christ’s sake? When this question arises, we will think of persecution, struggles and martyrdom. Many years back, I got a dream. In that dream, I was taken into a temple. The people of the temple are having fully shaved heads and they have knives in their hands. There was a pond in the middle of the temple and I was in a line. When my turn came, they asked me to reject Jesus or take the knife and cut my own throat. In that dream, I was tensed and ran away from there.
After I woke up, I felt very bad and depressed thinking that I could not stand for God in the time of actual trouble. That dream disturbed me a lot. But later God helped me by taking through various situations and helped me to understand my condition. Actually, I was rejecting Jesus on a daily basis.
In our daily life, we have desires which are not healthy, weaknesses we cannot overcome, secret desires that we want to fulfil at least in the fantasies etc. All these are actually against the word and code of conduct for the believers of Jesus Christ.
When we wanted to indulge one of these areas, there will be a still small voice heard in our own minds. But we would not mind that sound when the pressure and urge is more intense to satisfy the ego of the flesh. After that we feel guilty about it. I felt it many times in some areas.
That time of persecution to really cut my own throat to die to stand for Jesus may come or may not come. But on a daily basis, on an hourly basis there are situations in our life, that we need to take a decision to yield to it or not. If we yield, we are giving up Jesus or rejecting him. But if we could stand firm, we are dying which is crucifying our selves, so that the life of Jesus be manifested in us.
Now the question to all of us is – “Do you have guts to die daily for Christ?”. One time permanent death is somewhat easy but daily dying to the pulling of the flesh is very difficult. When we can die to that, we live for Christ as Paul said.
Prayer
Dear loving heavenly Father, thank you for your love and grace. Thank you for showing me my standards. But thank you for not leaving me nor forsaking me for those standards. You are the God of opportunities. You gave more opportunities than I thought. Help me Lord utlizing them and learning to live for Christ and die to self and flesh. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!
0 Comments