Winning and Losing

You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Matthew 16:23b, 25 (NIV)

When you lose, you win.

Jesus speaks these words to the disciples after telling them of His suffering and death at the hands of the religious leaders and of His resurrection after 3 days. Immediately Peter protests “No Jesus, that’s not how the story goes!” But it is.

Peter had an expectation about how the Messiah would save Israel. But Peter was constrained by his own realm of possibilities. No plan to save Israel included Jesus’ death. It was inconceivable.

Each of us has an outline for how we’d like our lives to play out based in reality. Even our dreams are limited by what we conceive as humanly possible. Jesus says “Let it go. You’re thinking too small. You have no idea what we can do together.”

Jesus tells us that by releasing control of our future and following His guidance, we will lose our ordinary, safe, comfortable (and wasted) life and get one that is truly worth living. His plan might not be easy, predictable, or comfortable, but will be more fulfilling than our own.

God carefully created us with passions and talents. He will certainly use these for His purposes, perhaps in ways we can’t envision. But God makes no mistakes. He is inherently good and has an unimaginable life in store for you.

Will you trust Him?

Will you let God reframe your picture perfect life?

When we give our life to God, we get a better one. (tweet this)

#SeedsofScripture #losetowin #madeformore #surrender