“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant will also be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” John 12:24-26
Jesus said this as the hour of his betrayal drew near. His path of bearing fruit led to the cross and he invites us to follow. But how can we accept such an invitation? How did Jesus accept his? The Son loved his Father and his Father’s purposes more than his own life. When we die to our own goals and comforts and pleasures and simply say, “Here I am Lord; I want to do your will,” then we follow the Master.
Our whole future is based upon a trust in the miraculous power of God. Through death comes life… really? If I die, will I really live again? If I surrender, will I really gain victory? If I am baptized into the One I believe to be Savior and King, will I really be raised to live a new fruitful life? So often we look at ourselves and think, “My life does not seem so abundant. I believe in Jesus, but what can he do with me? Have I really died and received new life?”
The Holy Spirit keeps telling us to look to Jesus. “You believe Jesus died and was raised, right? You believe death has no mastery over him, right? You believe the life he lives, he lives to God, right? You are in him! You died with him and you are raised with him. Because he lives, you live. You believe in the power of God in the Son, now believe in the power of God in you!”
A twenty-two year old girl amazed 13,000 listeners in an Atlanta arena last week as she told about moving to Uganda as a teenager and adopting thirteen orphan girls. The power in the message of Katie Davis is not the fact that she gave up ‘normal American life’ to serve the poor but that she knows a Savior who changed her life. She says her story is not about Katie… it is about Christ. Jesus gave her God’s dreams and the faith and strength to live boldly. Katie Davis is very happy.
God may not lead me to Uganda, but he will live powerfully in my life if I trust him. God does not have the same exact plan for you that he has for me, but he will not fail to accomplish his wonderful purposes if you trust him. “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.”
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death has no mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:8-11