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At what cost?


Ezekiel 24:16

“Mortal man,” he said, “with one blow I am going to take away the person you love most. You are not to complain or cry or shed any tears.

 

Thought for the day – at what cost?

I wonder what went through Ezekiel’s mind when he heard God speak today. When he heard that God was going to take his wife suddenly and he was not allowed to grieve for her? I simply can’t imagine what he went through. And in some respects, Ezekiel’s story reminds of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. And on a deeper theological level, God must have known what he was asking Ezekiel to do, as he gave up his only son for us.  

And as hard as God’s command to Ezekiel to is, the bigger question for us is: what is the cost of following God. Would we be willing to accept what God was doing for the greater cause of the Kingdom? If God told us he was going to take away our livelihood, how would we react? If God told us he was going to take away our church, how would we react? Would we accept what God is doing because he is God, or would we do our utmost to hang on even though, it’s rejecting the will of God.

I don’t have an answer. And most of what we do when it comes to discipleship is around how we respond to the Gospel, how we can better follow Jesus. But what if the whole point of discipleship is accepting the will of God for ourselves. No matter the cost. Could we still do it? But to quote Deitrich Bonhoeffer "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." Because that is the true cost of discipleship. Death to self.

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