Lose This Life to Gain Christ

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

Luke 9:24 (NIV)

Jesus presents a paradox here that applies both to our ultimate salvation and to temporal physical life. Lose your life to find life. It is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. But when we realize that the life this world offers is so incomplete and ultimately leads to spiritual and physical death, we begin to make sense of Jesus' words.

By trying to save our lives on our own, we are pursuing our own agenda. We will lose it in the end. But, if we let go of our selfish aims and commit ourselves to the Lord Jesus, living for His purposes, seeking His will and surrendering to the life to which He calls us, we will become fully alive, free to seek the kingdom of God, instead of temporal pursuits that the world offers.

Today, if we kept in mind that this world can offer us nothing and that eternity is just ahead, it would focus our minds on the presence of God, and we would put ourselves on the cross daily and follow Jesus no matter what.