As faith deepens, the desire to show faithfulness to God also grows. Lay down your life. Let go and let God. Sacrifice yourself. When Christians realize the incredible works of mercy that God has done, they want to give back, reciprocate, and show God that they are worthy of His love.
On the surface, this is not a terrible thing. Dedicating your life, giving up your passions, crucifying yourself. In fact, Jesus says similar words to his disciples; “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
It is a worthy cause to follow Jesus. Losing, destroying, and murdering your own wants, passions, and paths so that you can take up the cross for yourself. It is a healthy thing to deny oneself as a discipline of focus. Sacrifice and abstinence have been found in faithful practices of the Christian Faith, such as Lent preparations and other times of prayer.
However, trusting in your own life of sacrifice to please God can be a dangerous road to walk. Even the disciples who were walking towards the historical cross with Jesus struggled with the truth of sacrifice. In the fervor to follow God's ways, the Pharisees who chastised Jesus had completely misunderstood sacrifice, and were blind to the truth that was literally in front of their eyes. Your self-sacrificing actions also may lead to a place where the sacrifice of Christ becomes meaningless in comparison to the righteous surrender in your own life.
A popular lie is that Christians must sacrifice themselves, just like Jesus. And yet, this sentiment is not even exclusively Christian. Any philosophy of control, success, and focus encourages one to give up the pleasures of the moment for a greater good. Simply put, self-sacrifice is nothing more than a helpful tool for life. But a life-hack quick-tip is not what Christ delivers by his death on the cross. Understanding sacrifice in this way is harmful because it is building your hope and trust on a crumbling foundation. And at the end of the day, do you think that you can offer yourself as a complete and total sacrifice? And would that be enough for God?
Jesus offered this same question to one of his eager disciples. DO you really think you can sacrifice your life and follow me?
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