Count the Cost

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

Courtesy of Flickr: here

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “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 (Luke 14:26).

Count the cost.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27).

Count the cost.

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? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish (Luke 14:28-30).' 

Count the cost.

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? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:31-33).

Count the cost.

Are we counting the cost, ladies and gents? If we are, have we decided it's too high? I'm looking at my life and the life of Christians here, there, and everywhere, wondering why we aren't stepping up. Is it our failure to count or our low spiritual banks that keep us from following Jesus Christ.

Following isn't easy, and let's not pretend like it is. It is, however, a worthy calling for sure. But if we're looking for easy-peasy, we need to look again.

Count the cost.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Phil 3:7-8).

Here's praying we stand in Jesus Christ counting it all worth the cost.

In His Name,
Jennifer