A New Focus

I read an Oswald Chambers devotional this morning that referenced Luke 14:28: 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? The devotional goes on to explain that the cost is not ours to count but has already been counted and paid by Jesus in his life, ministry and death on the cross. 

A lot of us who are Christians (myself included) talk a lot about counting the cost of discipleship, about taking up our cross, or referring to something as our cross to bear; but I don’t know that I think of all this in the terms described by Oswald Chambers in this morning’s reading. I don’t know the theology behind this, but perhaps taking up our cross has more to do with being crucified with Christ: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)

My life - the life I live as a believer and follower of Jesus - is, or should be, all about responding to what Jesus did, once for all. I need to retrain my thoughts! Instead of feeling the burden of “counting the cost”, I should remember that a present difficulty or trial has been dealt with on the cross. Then, instead of focusing on that current situation, turn my eyes to Jesus and thank him for what he has done and for what he is doing and will do in and through those circumstances. That’s his promise - he will never leave me or forsake me. He has promised that in all things he works for the good in my life. If I think in terms of the self-sacrifice being made in the name of discipleship, I’m missing the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made. My focus is on me and not on the Lord. 

Even as I write this, I’m realizing how easily I’ve been fooled into accepting as truth something that is actually a very wrong way of thinking. It’s just like the serpent in the garden with Eve, twisting the words of the Lord. The test for right or wrong thinking in regards to Christian living, is to ask who’s getting the glory. At the heart of my “old” thinking, was self: MY cross to bear, MY sacrifice. 

We do make sacrifices of our time and convenience and other things as we serve the Lord; but are those sacrifices pointing to Jesus or to me? Who’s getting the glory? Am I, as Paul wrote to the Galatians, living my life in the flesh or by faith in Jesus? Am I making those sacrifices as an offering of thanks and love in response to the Lord? Do you see the subtle shift, the difference in focus? 

We are in the last days of Lent - Holy Week - remembering and re-visiting the days leading up to and including Jesus’ crucifixion, death and resurrection. What a perfect time to sit with and pray the words from Psalm 139: 

Search me, O God, and know my heart. 

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

    and lead me in the way everlasting

Guard my thoughts, Lord. Reveal the subtle ways my thoughts go astray and keep my eyes turned to you, looking to you as my all in all, the sufficiency for all my needs. Thank you Lord that you and you alone are worthy of all glory and honor.