MPC LENTEN DEVOTIONS

Following Jesus is totally voluntary. He doesn’t coerce us nor does He bribe us with a perfect life free of all suffering. Instead, he invites us with the words “Come, follow me.”  But he does demand one thing: He insists on having the first place. He calls us to come to Him and die to self. This means He expects us to put out of our own heart what we want to do, and follow Him.

This is what discipleship is all about. It’s not about us; it’s all about Him. And if we want to experience His victory, we must first follow Him into defeat. The truth is we don’t really want to deal with defeat or death.  We want a new life but without the ugliness and pain of death.  The Bible makes clear that you and I are broken people who need to be remade into the image of Christ. Yet what we often want is to remake God into our image. We want Him to think like us, to want what we want, and we want His plans to match our grand designs.

Following Jesus requires self-denial and sacrifice, yet when the time comes to lay aside our desires and obey His commands, we falter. The discipline of fasting helps us practice saying no to ourselves. We don’t score points by not eating certain things during Lent, but we do learn the habit of setting aside our desires to make room for pursuing God’s will.