Costly — Worth Everything

Easter is my favorite ‘holiday’ celebration and my heart is always stirred. It’s not like I don’t appreciate Jesus and the costly sacrifice he paid every other day, but the focus of the season is so overwhelming yet reassuring. The season underscores the greatest love and lover of all time: a love borne out of a desire to just love. No strings, no qualifier, no metric. Just love. Complete, reckless, abundant love.

Easter celebrates the heart of Jesus. Jesus giving all so we could have all. His heart is so pure that if you touch it, you’re instantly untainted. It will clean you up real good. Well, this is the part that is your responsibility. You have to want him. Jesus loves us so much that he gave us the gift of choice. He doesn’t force himself on anyone. So you can do whatever you like but he beckons that we choose him. Only him.

In choosing him, you surrender everything. You forsake all others, including the good things and people you love — even yourself. I know when we hear ‘forsake all others,’ we’re quick to think and reference the ‘sins that easily beset.’ But surrendering to Jesus means leaving everything, including the good things. Luke 14:25–33 explains it to a T. You have to want to be his totally and completely. He doesn’t want to share. If you’re going for him, it has to be all the way through. No restraints. He goes all the way too. Heck, he hung on a tree with nail-pierced body parts. What could be more ‘all the way’ than that?! His love came at a cost so your choice comes at a cost too. Joint heirs with Christ is not by mouth, literally🤣.

Earlier this year, I told God ‘I want to be more intimate with you’. I say this in different ways every year, lol, but this year was unique. The desire had never been this palpable. I demonstrated this by interlocking my fingers and saying ‘God, like this’.

‘I want to be so close and intertwined that nothing slips’. And I knew that he wanted this for us too; I could tell. He is always in the right, so I knew it was me that needed to fix up sharply. I asked him, ‘What will I bring?!’ ‘What would it cost?’ I was determined to get it right. I didn’t want to assume; I wanted certainty and clarity. And he gave me the text from Luke and a song — ‘Costly’ by Naomi Raine. The answer was — Everything. He said I should give him everything. I was rattled. He was specific with me. Listing the exact things I should start with. “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else — your father and mother, wife(in my case, husband that I’ve not even met🤣 but desire) and children, brothers and sisters — yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.“ Luke‬ ‭14‬:‭26‬ ‭NLT‬‬ (If I’m led to, I’ll unpack the emotions that I felt here and how I’m navigating this).

Another thing this text pointed out to me was: first, count the cost. He doesn’t want you to commit without really knowing what it’ll take from you. This is another sweet spot about Jesus: what you see is what you get with him. No hidden terms and conditions. He wants you to look at everything squarely and then make the conscious decision to choose him and forsake all others. To answer the question ‘what will it cost?’ — it will cost everything. No stone unturned. My response was, and still is, ‘I have counted the cost’ (still counting every day), and you’re still worth everything. This experience with God explained this scripture so vividly; ”And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.“ ‭‭Mark‬ ‭12‬:‭30‬ ‭NLT‬‬. It really takes everything.

I made the conscious decision to choose him in 2017, and I’ve not looked back. So, this is not me saying the believers’ prayer and accepting Jesus into my life; I had done this a long time ago. This was me consciously surrendering to Jesus and committing to knowing his heart and ways directly from him — knowing Jesus for myself. I cannot begin to tell you how much this decision has transformed me. The details are important, so I’ll share eventually, but not today.

So I am asking you, are you in or are you out?! There’s no sitting on the fence with Jesus. Do you surrender completely, or are there parts that he can’t touch, or are there parts that you cannot or are unwilling to part with?

If your answer is ‘I’m In,’ I encourage you to:

• Run to Jesus with the same tenacity as you would if you were in the way of great danger or if there was a target on your back.
• Pursue him with the same hunger and desire as you would your favorite meal after a long day without food.
• Chase after him with the same zeal and zest as you would any opportunity you have waited earnestly for.

And if your answer is the opposite, or you don’t even have an answer, or you do but there are some things you just cannot leave behind, I’m here to tell you that Jesus is worth everything. He is a rewarder but you have to be diligent. So join this bandwagon. It’s a thrill ride!

You can start by saying these words: “God, I have come to the end of myself, and I accept that I clearly don’t know what I am doing with this life that you gave me. So I am releasing myself, and I surrender everything to you completely. Come into every aspect of my life and take charge. Do whatever you want with me and be glorified every step of the way, in Jesus’ name, Amen”.

I hope you choose right.

Radiating Joy,

EL.