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Surrender & Deny
Andrew Overmiller • January 26, 2021
One month into 2021, and the world around us feels and looks same as it did before.
This poses a difficult question: how do we continue to engage in ministry with all the crazy changes going around?
Over Martin Luther King weekend, the team did an amazing job answering this question. I was able to see the impact of my teammates who planned our January Captain's Retreat. We had 30 students from Fort Collins and Loveland come together and learn what it means to be equipped and to
equip others to be in PURSUIT of our Lord.
During one of our huddles we began to talk through Luke 9:23, where Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me." As we talked through this verse, our student leaders and I begin to really dive in to what Jesus meant when He said to follow after Him.
For many, following after Christ is just doing the necessary things so that we can say it’s enough. For some, it’s saying a prayer once so that they don’t have to spend eternity away from the Father. For others, it's following the actions of Jesus in the Bible to try to live a righteous life.
In John 16:7, Jesus says, "But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." Following Jesus is much more then doing the necessary things to call yourself a Christian. It is more than just doing good deeds and going to church. It is total surrender. Surrender of your whole life to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We do not just follow the example of Jesus in the Gospels. We allow the Holy Spirit to come and fill our lives, producing fruit that glorifies the Father.
The cost of being a disciple of Jesus is denying everything that this world tells us it can offer. What we get when we surrender our lives to Him fully IS Him. Which is far greater than anything else.
So, we happily deny ourselves of all the things this world can offer us, with excitement pick up our cross, and for the rest of our days we chase after Him with all we have.