Week 9.1 The Cost of Following Jesus pt 2
1. Bible Reading: Matthew 8:21-22
Click here for Matthew 8 on Bible Gateway
2. Observation
What reason did the prospective disciple give for not following Jesus immediately?
3. Explanation
It is possible that this disciple was not asking permission to go to his father’s funeral but rather to put off following Jesus until his elderly father died. Perhaps he was the first-born son and wanted to be sure to claim his inheritance. Perhaps he didn’t want to face his father’s wrath if he left the family business to follow an itinerant preacher. Whether his concern was financial security, family approval, or something else, he did not want to commit himself to Jesus just yet. Jesus however, would not accept his excuse.
- NLT Life Application Study Bible
4. Application
What reasons do you or people give for not following Jesus immediately?
5. Prayer
Jesus, please help me to overcome procrastination in following you. Thank you for being a leader on whom we can fully rely on.
6. Verse of the Week:
Matthew 8:26
He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
He wanted to bury his father first.
Excuses are plentiful – family, situation, time, and so on. These reasons often don’t reveal some of the true reasons that underlie our decisions – our pride, lack of priority, lack of knowledge/wisdom, or lack of initiative. We need to allow ourselves to be moved emotionally and intellectually to follow Jesus immediately.
Life in general has many excuses for us to put up. And I guess this is where we have to ask ourselves if we are serving God, or serving ourselves (the world)? We need to be putting God first in all areas of life, rather than letting excuses get the better of us.
For those who have given up life as we know it to serve Christ full-time is something to be in awe of. I think we know that this may be what God wants from us, but it’s a massive leap of… that’s right, faith…