Fruitful Followership

 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” Matthew 16:24-25 KJV

In all fairness, fruitfulness while following Jesus does appear as a subtraction of personal interest instead of addition. And this is the reason why there is zero chemistry between trusting God and leaning on personal understanding. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself”…of personal interest, intervention and interaction. And then comes the major challenge, how can we access God’s interest, intervention, and interaction when we readily connect emotionally with people, events, and experiences? Jesus responds “Take up your cross daily, and follow me”. Every believer’s cross is his deliberate and intentional willingness to ensure his personal interest, intervention and interaction does not violate or invalidate the revealed interest, intervention and interaction of God. For example, Jesus himself demonstrated the concept of this fruitful followership at Gethsemane, when He surrendered to the will of the Father at His crucial confrontation with the interest of the flesh. There is always a cross to take up in every believer’s interaction with the elements of his relationships in the family, among friends, fans and foes. We can either take up the cross and follow Jesus, or drop the cross and follow our personal interest or the interests of significant others in our lives; but we cannot possibly drop the cross and claim to follow Jesus.


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