Today’s Devotion
Topic: The Concerns Of God! (Part 2)
Text: Mark 8: 31-38
Yesterday, we discussed that long before the cross, Jesus had begun teaching His disciples that it was important to God that the Son of Man suffers many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law. He had to be killed, and after three days, rise again.
When Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him not to say these things, Jesus knew it was Satan at work through him and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” He said, “You do not have in mind the CONCERNS OF GOD, but merely human concerns.”
Today, we want to look at some of the other things Jesus said that constitute the concerns of God, the reason for this concern and possibly why Peter got it wrong.
CONCERN NUMBER 2:
Jesus called the crowd and said to them: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me and for the gospel will save it.
REASON:
The “self” of man is stubborn by nature. This is because it has a WILL to decide whether to flow with God or get obsessed with the desires of this world and get destroyed. Everyone who loves SELF too much finds themselves in opposition to God because He owns the life we possess and not we ourselves. He knows best for us and we know nothing at all. When we deny self and take after Him, we have demonstrated a desire to be children of our Father in Heaven; to have Him live in us His perfect will and desire.
Secondly, in the principle of Heaven, just as happens in sowing, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). In other words, we cannot be used by God or be made a multiplied blessing if we remain self-loving, self-seeking, self-obsessed or self-concerned. We must be broken and be brought to the point where the SELF DOESN’T MATTER; only the will of God. That way, we are a blessing to God and the countless number of people we encounter.
Beloved, this is why it matters to God that we take after the example of Christ “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage, rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2: 6-11)
WHY PETER GOT IT WRONG:
Peter got it wrong because in the concerns of Man, the SELF is most important of all. We will do anything to preserve our SELF-WORTH, SELF-RESPECT AND SELF-INTEREST. All of that render us SELF-SEEKING and SELFISH. That is why peter couldn’t bear to hear that JESUS would predict suffering and death for ‘Him-SELF’.
In response to this, Jesus said “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
Wow! Beloved, do you think you have been broken to the point where you have denied SELF, taken your cross and are following Jesus wherever He leads; or it’s your SELF rather leading, and hoping that Jesus will follow? Is your SELF seeking to gain the whole whole and yet refusing to yield to the Saviour for the salvation of its own soul?
Meditate a lot on this word and begin to pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you receive the gift of God, (which is salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ), and also help you deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him without giving up.
For we know that unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it will always remain only a single seed. Yet we are called to produce many seeds from the fruit we bear. Therefore, may the Lord help us, and have His way in us!
Tomorrow, we will look at the last concern of God in this series. Please make a date!
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