Following Not Our Heart, But Jesus

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” 

(Matthew 16:24-26 ESV)

In American society, as well as in much of the world today, we believe that life is about our happiness.  We encourage people to follow their heart.  We encourage them to do whatever makes them happy.  And that’s how we live our life as well.

Our happiness has become the basis for the decisions we make and for the actions we take. “What’s wrong with that?” you may ask.  We fail to take into consideration how our decisions and actions affect others.  And, even more important, we fail to consider if our decisions and actions are in line with the will of God.

We forget that our heart is sinful.  We forget that it desires those things that oppose God’s will.  So, if we follow our heart, if we do what makes us happy, we will almost certainly violate God’s Word and his will for our lives.

Jesus reminds us in the above passage that following him means denying ourselves.  It means denying our desires.  It means surrendering our wants.  It means giving our life into his hands even if it leads to our demise.

While, on the surface, that sounds crazy to us, it actually makes a lot of sense.  After all, life is found in him.  Eternal life is received from him.  We cannot willfully separate ourselves from him and expect to receive these blessings.

This is what Jesus points out in the second half of the above passage.  It profits us nothing if we gain the whole world, if we have everything our heart desires, and lose our own soul.  It means nothing if we thoroughly enjoy 80 years in this life and enter into eternal judgment.

While denying ourselves may seem like a sacrifice, it’s actually a great blessing.  We deny ourselves only of that which harms us.  And this is nothing like passing up the cupcake to keep our waistline in check.  It’s not the same because, while this may help us in the short term, denying our sinful nature and following Jesus preserves our life for eternity.

And, as we follow Jesus, something else takes place.  Those things that once made us happy no longer do so.  Instead, following Christ fills us with joy.  We want nothing to do with the sins of our past, and we want nothing more than to live for Christ.