ESOCS Devotional 17 October 2023: Die To Serve

ESOCS Devotional 17 October 2023 – Die to Serve

MEMORY VERSE: ““For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”  Luke 9:24

TEXT: LUKE 9:18 – 27 (KJV)

And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?

¹⁹ They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again.

²⁰ He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.

²¹ And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing;

²² Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.

²³ And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

²⁴ For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

²⁵ For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

²⁶ For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.

²⁷ But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.

Read Yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here

Every child of God is meant to serve his master and serve acceptably.  Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us here the most effective way to serve Him in other to achieve results.

In this world there are so many distractions that can affect the service of man to God.  We are to die to these distractions. We have the following staring man in the face:

• Threat of Persecution and Rejection:  There are all kinds of restrictions in those days among the Jews who viewed Jesus and His message as a challenge and problem for them and want to shut him and His followers down. From the New Testament account, we saw the persecution continue against the apostles and disciples when Jesus Christ ascended to heaven.  These same threat of persecution and rejection is still going on till date in different colours and shades in every place the gospel goes or preached.

• The satisfaction of fleshly pleasure:  Pleasures of this life is a very serious challenge which can distract effectively.  Pleasures of this life can keep a disciple redundant without achieving anything for the Lord.  Pleasures of this life can paralyse a disciple keeping him immobile.  It can make the disciple’s spiritual fire to go off gradually.

Whoever shies away from serving the Lord by giving into the above challenges is held down by self-preservation.  And anyone who succumbs to self-preservation will not amount to much to the Lord.

So, the Lord is saying, if we are to serve Him, we must give our all to Him and serve.  That means dying to self-preservation.  That was how the apostles succeeded.  And the Lord preserved them by Himself.  Apostle Paul said to die is gain.

And John 12:24 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

Beloved, in a summarised way, we have to die to sin, fear and doubt if we are going to serve the Lord effectively.  If we can be sold out to Him completely, He has made adequate arrangement for all we need to serve Him.  He says “… but whosever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”  This is a great assurance!

• Think, what are those things limiting or hindering you from serving the Lord effectively?  Would you want to do away with them?  Ask the Lord for strength.
• Father LORD God, give me the strength of total commitment and undivided attention to the Lord Jesus Christ and the growth of His kingdom that I may serve Him effectively.

FURTHER READING:  Isaiah 65:17–22; 40:27–end; Hebrews 11:32 – 12: 2

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ESOCS Devotional 17 October 2023