Day 16 - It only takes Two

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

Matt 16:24 (NET)

Following Jesus cost a lot more things than we actually know. It is not easy of course, but Jesus give us just two steps before following Him. With a lot of other words inside the Bible, Jesus compresses it into two: deny yourself and; take up your own cross.

Denying yourself simply means refuse. And what are you refusing of? Pleasures, your comfort zone, your gadgets, your video games, your alcohol habit, your drugs, your cursing habit, etc. So much things you can refuse more than you could think of. Of course it is not that easy to break a habit, but the Lord wants us to deny ourselves for before we go to the last step.

Take up your cross means accepting or challenging social critics. It doesn't mean that you have to take a burden or hardship literally when following Jesus. When you deny yourself, you are starting to change your habits and for that, people around you begun to realize how much you are changing and will become critics about it. This will be you cross taking up, all those blames and comments because they don't know the real story.

When we're done with this two, we can now decide to follow Jesus. Remember that there are lot of notes in the Bible to help you out with His instruction. Just don't lose your faith, deny yourself and take up your cross.

Day 15 - Food take in, Word say out

17 Don't you understand that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and then passes out into the sewer? 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person.

Matt 15:17-18 (NET)

We people needs to eat and food is what we eat. Logically,  we ate the food, chew it down in our mouth, goes down to our stomach, starts to digest that food, stays awhile in the intestine for further digestion and then releases in our body goes down to the sewage. Basic science and all of us, including Jesus knows about it.

But Jesus describe 'things come out of the mouth' as words every mouth would say. Scientifically, every word we say is base in our knowledge to response during a conversation and our brain arrange those words so quickly as we say the each word output.

Jesus knows everything, thus he knew what every heart would say. We may say something that our mind created but what we say from our heart when we are pissed, when we are angry, when we are happy, when we are sad, every emotional response we may say coming from our heart is what our character is about. And the Lord knows what our heart is saying thus he knew what are our characters and attitudes. So we must always be careful to every words we say for the Lord will be delighted when we say good things.

Day 14 - Everything in Every Prayer

And after he sent the crowds away, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

Matt 14:23 (NET)

Jesus has done miracles in this time healing the sick and casting out demons. But after he does all these miracles, after he send them away, he went up to the mountain where he pray privately. For hours he pray and pray and pray until evening. But what puzzles me is that, what Jesus prayed for?

For all those miracles Jesus has done, i am sure that he is praying to thank the Father. What Jesus did, pray until night came, is significantly shows how much we should thank the Lord in everything. In Jesus' experience, where many great things happen, he prayed to thank the Lord but also he shows how much weariness he felt and still called out to the Lord and thank Him for everything He has done.

Just like Jesus did, we should always learn to pray for everything. Whatever you do, wherever you are, set a side and pause a while and pray. It doesn't need to be that long like Jesus, but privately, pray that comes from the heart and the Lord will be delighted.

Day 13 - Great Treasure of Joy

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.

Matt 13:44 (NET)

The parables of the kingdom of heaven is a great story to know. Just like as this one were a person found a treasure. The treasure symbolizes the Kingdom of Heaven, were all great things, luxuries, beauty are there and no one could imagine how much value this treasure is. The person symbolizes the people who followed Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. The person sell all his belonging's to buy the land where he hid the treasure after he found it. This act means that whoever follows the Lord and experience happiness and contentment will forgot earthly things and acquire the treasure with greatest value. The joy that the person felt when he found the treasure is literal and hiding the treasure again means keeping the treasure to himself where he secure all the words of the Lord and obey it.

Humans are delightful to any treasure so he always find a way to get any treasure of great value. And the treasure as kingdom of heaven is not easy to find but when we follow the Lord, He will give us the map and instruction how we can get that treasure.

Day 12 - Be careful what you say for

36 I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

Matt 12:36-37 (NET)

Words are very powerful weapon. That is why every word in the Bible is powerful because it came from the Lord who gave us this book of knowledge to perform good deeds and evade the bad ones.

Language is a form of communication and its a gift from God. Amazingly, you can communicate to the Lord using different languages as long as you are talking from you heart. The Lord always talk not by the words coming out from His mouth but what His heart is saying. And that should be the same for His children, were we are talking from our heart and not from our mind.

God judges what comes out from our mouth so we should watch what words should be spoken and words should not be spoken. We should also think every worthless thing in our mind before we say something. Remember that God is always watching us and when the day of judgment came, all words we said are to be judge, because what we say is what made of us.

Day 11 - Rest upon your Weariness

28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Matt 11:28-29 (NET)

Jack has to pass 32 financial report to his boss tomorrow at 8am but he only finished 14 financial report over the night. He managed to get a 2 hour sleep before he goes to work but this isn't enough. He  didn't also finish his assignment from his boss.

Faye and her classmates are doing their thesis project deadline in 2 days. But its been 3 days since they are working really hard to get their machine work and all the documents should be passed also.

May has the best ability for pastry in her community. But today, with so much orders calling up on her, hanging one by one after an hour or two, she just can't do all those orders in one day with the same deadline.

All of us has our own experiences of weariness. Rush hours, deadlines, stress, all of it just in one moment. But these things are nothing when the Lord give you rest. Jack, Faye and May can't complain of their work, because they are just human, and they need rest.

Rest is just one thing that the Lord will offer if you call unto Him. Whenever you're sad. Whenever you're tired. Whenever you're hurt. Whenever you're weary.  Just call and He will always answer. Better case is, Jack might be promoted by his boss because of dedication; Faye and her group finished and submitted their thesis project without deadline and; May had a help from her family to finish all the orders.

Day 10 - The All-seeing Eye

Do not be afraid of them, for nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known.

Matt 10:26 (NET)

A boy is playing with his basketball inside the house together with his friends alone. Accidentally, he threw up the ball and hit one of the family portrait, fell on the floor with frame and glass broke. The boy and his friends clean up the mess as if nothing happens  inside the house. Later that day, the Father came home and notice the missing family portrait and ask the His son where is it. The boy said that he didn't know where but the Father saw some broken glass scattered on the floor and ask the boy again. The boy confess everything to his Father and begun to cry. The Father lift up his boy, went to the kitchen, and take out some ice cream for His boy saying "It's okay."

Everyday we experience a lot of mistakes and wrongs which some are tempted by our enemies. Then we try to fix our wrongs by our own way. Good news is, we can always make it right though the truth has already been hidden. In worse cases, we might mess up more when we try to fix our faults ending up without a solution in our hands and a worse scenario.

But the Lord knows everything and nothing can hide before His eyes. Mistakes, wrongs, faults and even our sins shall be confess to the Lord though He always knew about these things. It is true that we cannot just rely on our own capabilities and that we always need God to help us in everything. Just like the boy did, we must not be afraid to confess our mistakes. Who knew what will our Father would give for us after we confess everything to Him. Not just forgiveness but a delightful blessing and miracle. Do you want an ice cream? A delight in your life? Tell Jesus about it.

Day 9 - Faithful Trust or Trustful Faith

28 When he went into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." 29 Then he touched their eyes saying, "Let it be done for you according to your faith." 

Matt 9:28-29 (NET)

The word faith came from the Latin word fidēs which means belief and trust or simply the word itself. Trust is always tessellate with faith and will always be. When Jesus ask the blind men, He is also questioning him for his trust. But the blind men never  came a second thought but quickly respond to Jesus and trust in Him. For the blind men know who Jesus is and he also know what Jesus can do. 'Yes, Lord' should be a habit for us believers like the blind men for the Lord is always asking 'Do you trust me?' or 'Do you believe in me?'

Trusting someone or something is putting your faith on it. Which is why it is the first thing you need to do when asking Jesus. You need to trust Him first so whatever you ask will be granted.

When trust comes, there will be miracle. So whenever we trust Jesus, we are putting faith on Him. And after we put faith on something, Jesus then will do the miracle on it. We should learn to trust Jesus and put faith on Him in prayer and everything for He is powerful and able.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding." from Prov. 3:5 (NET) which proves that we should always trust the Lord and never doubt on it. Never assume and expect on something for the Lord only knows what to give and to be granted.

Day 8 - Following at Risk

19 Then an expert in the law came to him and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." 20 Jesus said to him, "Foxes have dens, and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

Matt 8:19-20 (NET)

Stalking someone is easy as idolizing someone. We follow them wherever they go and we do whatever they do. But the table starts to turn when you know how much it cost to follow or to idolize someone. Others stops when they knew the cause and others still want to follow. Also, there are times you try to pause to follow and continue following later.

Following Jesus Christ is not easy just as He describes in the following verses. He explains, animals like foxes and birds do have a resting place. They have time to wander all day all night and when they get tired, dens and nests are their solution to rest. But the man, who does have a house to rest, who does have much comfortable places than animals, doesn't have any time to rest. In fact, we people do have more activities than animals which causes us to go restless all day. In those activities, how much time do we spend in a day for the Lord? Do we have any time for Him even we have a bunch of work in a day? Is there a change in our restless days if we start following Jesus?

The Lord said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matt 11:28 (NET).

Something to follow or someone to follow is never easy and sacrifices are always at risk. But when you follow Jesus, all sacrifices you made and all weariness you felt will worth a blessing in the kingdom of heaven. Think about this, plants can stand and stay everyday under the heat of the sun and yet they fed on the sunlight to grow and become stronger.