Come, Deny, Take, Follow

Luke 9:23 If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

While meditating on this verse four words stood out, come, deny, take up and follow. In searching these four words on dictionary.com I noted these comments.

Come—to move toward someone, to present oneself, to begin to produce or yield

Deny—refrain from satisfying one’s desires or needs

Take up—to occupy oneself with the study or practice of

Follow—to conform to or obey, to pursue closely or tenaciously

Therefore in re-writing this verse based on these four words it may read something like this:

If anyone would move toward me, he must refrain from satisfying his own desires and occupy himself with the study or practice of the cross daily and pursue me tenaciously.

God does not require that we move toward him. We do so only by our free will. If we do move toward Him we are assured that he will accept us. Our gift is eternal life. This is the easy part in that all we have to do is believe.http://www.freefoto.com/preview/?ffid=05-08-5

Once we do come to Him we then must begin and continually seek His will and not our own. This means that we re-prioritize our life. We begin to replace our desires, motivated by the flesh, and seek what God’s purpose is for our lives. Harder than the first and is part of a daily, moment by moment awareness.

How do we know God’s will? By occupying ourselves with the study of His word. Everything we need is there for us in the word of God. Sounds simple, but it requires discipline. We must set aside http://www.freefoto.com/preview/?ffid=05-08-5priority time in spending time with God. For most this is harder still. The pressures of life are often a distraction. However, if we are truly refraining from satisfying our own desires we can make this a daily practice.

Once we begin to understand God’s laws, commands and precepts then we are to conform, obey, pursue closely and tenaciously observe. Dedication is required.

The good news is we can do this. We must choose to, want to, discipline ourselves to, and dedicate ourselves. Do most Christians observe coming, denying, taking up and following?

Please make comments of your experiences and thoughts.