Count the Cost

Several years ago, my son was competing in body building competitions. I went to one and saw women my age who looked fabulous, competing in the figure competition. I felt inspired! If these women could achieve these results with hard work, so could I!

My son was a personal trainer and I asked him to begin training me. After three sessions of him yelling at me to push harder...1 more rep and don't give up, plus the strict diet I was on... I'd had it! The results were not worth the cost! The prize was not worth the price!

When it comes to Jesus, there's no cost too great! For me, time in His presence, worshiping, praising, praying, interceding, decreeing, studying His Word and hearing His voice, has become a privilege and no longer a sacrifice!

So today, you need to count the cost and make up your mind once and for all... Is it worth it? Nothing less than total surrender will do. All of the things that have held your attention and sparked your desires must be placed at the altar. Your weakness in exchange for His strength! Your desires traded for His... which are so much greater... they are on a completely different plane.

We've become desensitized to the Spirit by so many earthly distractions. There's constant sources of entertainment and things that take our attention from our First Love... it's all at our fingertips... but where is it leading? It's an empty pleasure that tantalizes your senses and keeps your mind occupied and far from Jesus and His incredible plans for your life!

Your life is heading in some direction... who's leading the way? Is it your flesh or the enemy that's taken you in a path of self destruction or is it the Holy Spirit that's leading you closer to Jesus and to your ultimate destiny!? The only place of peace, joy and fulfillment is the center of His will for your life! One that's filled with His power, love, courage, strength and every gift you need to see lives touched, delivered and transformed for the Glory of God!! Repent of anything that has separated you from Him and stifled your growth. Choose wisely today! Your life and that of many others depends on it!

Joshua 24:15 (KJV) And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NLT) I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Luke 15:27-35 (NKJV) And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the 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’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of youdoes not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”