Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me. Luke 9:23 NIV
I was recently with a small group of Christians. They all had various stressful issues on
their minds, but what struck me was that they all seemed to feel that somehow
it was a great injustice that they should be faced with such challenges. Where does that come from? Surely not Jesus’
teaching. Sometimes pride and smugness creeps into the thinking of people who
believed they are leading a “good” life. They start to feel entitled to a
better-than-most quality of life. Where in the Gospels does it indicate that
Christians will not suffer ? In fact, Jesus warns us that the Christian life
will be full of difficulties.
Also, sometimes there is an attitude that as a believer that
they are somehow protected against the negative consequences of foolish
actions. Common sense is useful for everybody! When rash behaviour is motivated
by a real love for others, God will usually honour that, but when risky
behaviour is really just about selfish
ambition and greed, he isn’t going to honour that. As Christians, we need to be
humble enough to seek advice from other Christians and to give serious thought to it before we launch out on
some pie-in-the-sky plan of action, or we may reap a harvest that we will
deeply regret.
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