Week 11: The Cost of Following Jesus
Jesus warns that following Him isn’t something to take lightly; He asks us to give Him our whole lives. In Today's reading, He is refreshingly honest about what it means to be His disciple. He says we need to count the cost, like someone planning to build a tower or a king getting ready for battle. You wouldn’t start building a house without creating a budget and a plan. In the same way, Jesus asks us to consider what we’re really saying yes to. Following Him might mean that we sometimes have to choose the more difficult path, but when we remember that God is our Father who loves us, we can trust that His ways are better. It’s not about perfection, but it is about surrender.
Read Luke 14:25-33 (ESV)
“Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
Reflection:
What might I need to surrender to follow Jesus more fully?
Why does Jesus emphasize counting the cost before following Him?