Luke 14:25–33 (ESV)
The Cost of Discipleship
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.
This section can
be hard to understand, especially when Jesus says “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.” What Jesus
is saying is that you should be ready to give up anything or everything if duty to God calls for it. Don’t let anything get in between you and God. Non-believing parents can often try to drive a wedge between you and God. They may tell
you that “blood is thicker than water” and it is either God or them. It’s not easy to walk away from your family... but if they try to get turn your faith away from God, then so be it. Choose God!
I pray: O
Lord, help me to put you first in my life, and to walk according to your ways and to bear my cross of following you... even to the point of death. In Jesus Christ name I pray, Amen.