by Kala Loptien

Lord Of My Life

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

“And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'”
Luke 9:23, ESV

I listened to an awesomely-convicting message recently at an all-school chapel where the pastor asked two important questions:

1.) Who is Lord?

Well, that seemed easy for the crowd of students to acknowledge. “God!” “Jesus!” They shouted quickly from various locations in the worship hall. Then came the second question. Silence and reflection followed:

2.) Who is Lord of your life?

Now we’ve got a dilemma. Because we really prefer to be in control. What does it mean for God to reign in every corner of our lives? Maybe we let him in here and there. What about our struggles, our thorns and our pain? Are we turning it all over to God, trusting that HE can and will handle it? Where is our focus? What or who is running our life? (So many questions, I know.) My head is spinning as I type and think through it all. It’s like a speedy movie montage where scenes from our lives flash faster and faster, louder and louder until everything just stops. Then we hear Jesus. He issues a gentle, but firm reminder. We have to ask: have we really denied ourselves and followed him?

Pastor Tim Keller offered his take on the definition of humility. He said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself… It’s about thinking of yourself less.” Whoa. I couldn’t get that out of my head at first. We really do focus on our wants, needs and desires constantly, don’t we? It’s a self-centered world we live in. Yet, Jesus calls us to deny ourselves. He wants us focused on him, focused on caring for others and spreading the Good News to our neighbors. When we get too caught up and entangled in our own stuff, we miss these opportunities.

My prayer today is for the Lord to reign in every single corner of our lives. Father-God, enable us to daily deny ourselves and take up our crosses to follow you with bold obedience.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado