Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost? – Luke 14:28
Nearly everyone in the United States has received an offer for a credit card with a low introductory interest rate. The bold, colorful announcement sounds good when you first read it, but then you take a look at the fine print and find out that low rate is only effective for the first three months you use it, and then it rises dramatically. Some consumers have little resistance to the big, beautiful offer, and few may stop to consider what interest on purchases will truly cost.
Following Jesus has its costs—but there is no fine print! He has spelled it out for you in His Word. John Piper wrote, “Authentic discipleship may exact from you the highest price relationally and the highest price physically.” Jesus asks that you put Him before everything else. As the apostle Paul tells you, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). In Matthew 16, Jesus tells His disciples that if anyone wishes to follow Him, he must deny himself, and take up his cross. As you deny your old self and renew your mind with His truth, God transforms you into His new creation in Christ. When you lay down your life and pick up your cross, you demonstrate your willingness to be and do whatever He desires and go wherever He leads you. Submission to His will becomes your life pattern. Jesus also reminds you that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30), and the rewards of staying close to Him are paid in eternity.
God’s way for you is always for your good and His glory. Thank Him for how He leads you each day. Then pray for members of Congress who are also seeking to glorify God and provide evidence of His love for the world through their obedience to Him.
Today’s Verse: Luke 14:28
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?
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Luke 14:25-33
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “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. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 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? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 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? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
