LOVE GOD ABOVE ALL

"If you love your father and mother more than you love Me, you are not worthy of being Mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than Me, you are not worthy of being Mine." Christ calls us to a higher mission than to find comfort and tranquillity in this life. Love of family is a law of God, but even this love can be self-serving and an excuse not to serve God or do His work. "If you refuse to take up your cross and follow Me, you are not worthy of being Mine." To take up our cross and follow Jesus, we must lay down other cares and priorities - only then can we pick up our commitment to Christ. We should be totally committed to God and willing to face anything, even suffering and death, for His sake. "If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for Me, you will save it." This verse is a positive and negative statement of the same truth: clinging to this life, may cause us to forfeit the best from Christ in this world AND in the next. The more we love this life's rewards (leisure, power, popularity, financial security), the more we discover how empty they really are. The best way to enjoy life, therefore, is to loosen our greedy grasp on earthly rewards and thus to be free to follow Christ (Matthew 16:25). In doing so, we will inherit eternal life and begin at once to experience the benefits of following Him. [Matthew 10:37-39, Life Application Bible, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1988].