“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)

Does that describe your relationship with Christ? Are you denying yourself, your plans, your desires? What sacrifices are you currently making to be a follower of Christ? If you’re not choosing His plans, His desires for your life over yours and if you’re not sacrificing yourself, your everyday life, you’re not much of a disciple. Ouch!

I’ve lived for too long as a comfortable Christian and now God is calling us to give up the comforts of the life we’ve enjoyed for a number of years and step out in faith and obedience for Him. However, compared to what Christ suffered for us for His act of obedience, my life is a walk in the park. We are not called to swap our stories of surrender with each other. I’ve heard the tales of Christians who practically get into a contest with another Christian about how much they’ve given up or surrendered to follow Christ. But when we compare what we’ve given up to what He went through, that looks and sounds really foolish.

The point isn’t how much we’ve given up to follow Christ. If we brag about what we’ve given up, then we’ve really not totally given it up. If we’re still carrying the pictures of all our stuff around in our wallet, we haven’t really given it up.