The Cost
By Sarah Walker
By Sarah Walker
“And the world is
passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides
forever.”
1 John 2:17 (ESV)
1 John 2:17 (ESV)
When Jesus transforms us and works
in our lives, the repeated example in Scripture is that there is often some
cost. Not in the sense that we earn our position, but in the sense that we
joyfully are willing to sacrifice what it takes to become even more intimate
with the God of the universe.
When a group of four men brought
their paralyzed friend to see Jesus who was at home, they had to remove the portion
of the roof above Jesus in order to get their friend to Him. Imagine. To get to
Jesus, somebody’s home had to be ruined. And Jesus, when He saw the four men
and their paralyzed friend, praised their faith. Jesus didn’t condemn the
actions that caused a roof to need repair. He didn’t even ignore it. No, He
praised the faith of the men involved, forgave the sins of the paralytic, and
healed him! What an amazing example of how much Jesus values our faith. Even over
the destruction of property. Jesus performed a miracle, and a wrecked roof was
the cost. [1]
When Jesus told Simon Peter to
cast his nets out again after Simon had been out fishing all night and caught
nothing, there were so many fish that his nets began to break and his boat
began to sink. Simon and his brother Andrew called over their fishing partners,
James and John, and the amount of fish they caught caused their nets to break
as well. [2] We are told in Mark 1:16-20 that James and John had to spend
time to mend their nets afterwards. It was in the wake of this that Jesus
called the four men to follow Him and be His disciples. Jesus astonished even
professional fishermen with how many fish were caught, and transformed the
lives of the four fishermen…but wrecked nets were the cost.
In both cases, people were
transformed! There may be a cost to receive the truth about Jesus: who He is
and the miracles and overflow that come from following Him. It may require
repair to earthly things, but Jesus is most concerned with our hearts.
GOING DEEPER:
1. Are there costs in your life that God has used, or will use, to draw you closer to Him and to learn more about who He is? If so, choose thankfulness for the transformation that will occur because of those circumstances.
FURTHER READING:
[1] Mark
2:1-12
[2]
Luke 5:1-11
Sarah is married to Scott and is a
full-time mom to their two young sons. She and Scott are involved in a small
group focused on prayer.
