Types of Living

5:30am start to the day.  I put the coffee on (I bought a new coffee maker - the old one taking 45 minutes to brew 6 cups just wasn't cutting it!), showered, and sat down to do my Bible study.  I was tired and had a little nap before really digging in.  How is it that I get up at 5:30 or 6 every morning but I'm still running out the door at the last minute?  

Luke 9:24-25

24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? 


2. Pore over the passage and paraphrase the major points:

- When you do everything you can to preserve this present life, you're missing the whole point of life!
- What good is it to get all the stuff you can on earth, and live only for yourself, if you lose what is the most important thing - your soul?
- Giving up your life, as defined by the world, and surrendering to God and His plan for you, is what saves you - the real you.

3. Pull out the spiritual principles:

- Giving up my tangible life - my "stuff" - in exchange for the real, true life that only Jesus can give is scary!  There is nothing on this earth that will get me into a right relationship with God.  The only way my future is secure (in Heaven where I will have far more than this world could every offer) is to have Jesus in my heart and to daily live for Him.
- If I only work to achieve and obtain what this world considers "living", I have missed the mark.  The life I have in Jesus, which involves doing what He has chosen me to do and what He has put me on this earth to do, is what will bring me fulfillment and satisfaction that the world does not understand.
- "Success without fulfillment is ultimate failure." Tony Robbins.
- Jesus came to earth so I could have an abundant and fulfilled life.

4. Pose the question:

- In what areas am I seeking out worldly life instead of Godly life?
- What things am I involved in are not giving me the abundant life Jesus talks about?
- What fears are keeping me from giving up my tangible, world life in exchange for the life God has for me?
- Even if I lost everything, if I have Jesus, then I have everything I need.  Do I believe that?  Does my life reflect that?
- What benefit is it to gain the world and lose who I am?
- Am I sacrificing who I am to have worldly success?
- How do I be me, who God made me to be, without the influence of the world?

5. Plan obedience and pin down the date:

- Ask myself: Is this action for worldly pleasure or for abundant life?
- Ask myself: Will doing _________ draw me closer to what God has chosen for me or what the world considers success?
- Don't sacrifice who I am to be what the world considers successful.

6. Pray:

God, I want the life You have chosen for me - abundant life in Jesus.  In You I find fulfillment, not in the things of this world.  Help me to live that out.  My relationship with You is what is most important. "Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to Thee."  Amen.

Song:

Lose Your Soul - TobyMac