COUNT THE COST
--By Sondra F. McCauley

Remember when you were first saved and thought you could take on the world? Your faith seemed unshakable, no gain seemed unobtainable, and no obstacle seemed insurmountable. You knew that God was on your side and you believed you were ready to face absolutely anything. As a brand new Christian, it seemed so simple: you prayed and God answered-your way. But as you grew, then came incredible difficulties, circumstances, problems to overcome, and things you just could not understand. Jesus was out front leading you along an unfamiliar path and He didn't seem the same to you as before. You didn't recognize that side of Him. You found that it was not so simple as you initially thought. What happened?

The process happened, that's what. You learned that God was after so much more. With salvation, you had a goal of being saved from hell, being put in right standing with Him, and getting your needs met. But you did not figure on God's objectives, which were infinitely greater. You found that, for God, salvation was just an initial step to get you into position for a greater work-His greater work in you and not just for you. You found that He purposed to live and move through you in order to reach out to all creation to establish His Spiritual Kingdom on earth as in Heaven. And you found Him relentless in His goal. It required Him taking you through a process of sanctifying you wholly and making you a holy habitation for Himself. It required Him purifying and pruning you through the tests and trials and pressures of life so that you might bring forth more and much fruit. It required an understanding and a revelation of the secret of the branch, the Vine, and the Vinedresser. (John 15) And it required a decision on your part.

Just as with salvation, you had a choice to make: follow Him to the end or push Him aside and go your own route. To push Him aside, however, could mean stunted growth and never fulfilling His purposes, plans, or the abundant life that He has for you. To yield to Him in the process means fulfillment of those things and blessings for all eternity. However, there is a price to be paid in the interim. Jesus paid the price for us to get back to God. He sweated drops of blood as He considered that cost at Gethsemane. (Luke 22:39-44) Now we pay a price, too, by surrendering to Him the self-life of our souls--our reasonable service-in discipleship. It takes going through some things. It takes laying down some things. It takes bearing our cross and following Him-even to places we've never been before. It takes faith. It takes patience. And it takes a "Gethsemane" of our own. That's why in Luke 14: 26-35, God said count the cost:

26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
27And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
28For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
29Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
30Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
31Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
32Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
33So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
34Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
35It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.