One Life To Lose
Some time ago in this journey of Christian faith.. When things got deeper more than just tossing out summer bikinis from my closet.. When convictions became more intensified more than just fleshy restraint.. When the Truth penetrated beyond all superficiality and into my soul.. I came to the bottom line thought that kept me moving forward each day: That I have none but one life to lose.
"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me will find it" -Matthew 16:25
When asked about how she is able to be God's vessel for so many miraculous wonders of spiritual revivals, healing & deliverance, one dear prophet in all humility said, "Everyday, I crucify myself on Jesus's cross". Everyday. Truly, we still may not know how much it takes to lose a life for the One we believe. The extent of losing one's life becomes more heightened as we grow in faith. Losing one's life at moment is one thing. Losing one's life every single day is another. One true believer is to die and die, again and again; he is to experience starvation of his flesh, deprivation of his worldly desires, and extreme humiliation to himself. He is to be "dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11)". For again, we will not find ourselves unless we first lose it, and may not be alive again unless we first cease to live. As Apostle Paul once wrote:
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave Himself for me."
-Galatians 2:20
In this world which is not our home, we can tolerate pain, rejections and persecutions knowing that we are living not a life of our own but a life which belongs to the One who redeemed us from the penalty of sin. If our hearts are broken for the things that break His, then it is not really just our own heart that is breaking but guaranteed that He too, our sole mediator (1Tim 2:5), weeps for us with Godly tears and divine intercession to our Father in heaven. For in Jesus Christ, there is art in brokenness, and just as he wraps us with His love and comfort through its days, He also makes beautiful things out of it -- For beautiful things are always in succession of the Cross because of Christ's love. Just as the Scripture says:
"For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." -2 Corinthians 5: 14-15
It is one of the biggest denials of human race that in a split of a second, life as we know it can be over. That one's death may be mourned but in due time, everyone else's life will go on. None if his entitlements, nor possessions, nor dreams, nor feelings of love and hate in this realm will remain. As the Scripture says "..but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten (Ecc. 9:5)". Life is like grass in the fields which leaves wither and flowers which beauty fades (1 Peter 1:24)". None the less, life still is the least we have and so is the least we could give for all God's mercy, love and grace that He freely bestowed upon us without condition or cost. For we live only once and "to live is Christ, to die is gain (Philippians 1:21)".
For I've one life to lose, one chance to find
A newer, better me, the old one left behind
For there's one Lord who leads though steep the cost
I have learned when I am lost, it's there that I am found
-Laura Story
*All bible references are taken from the New International Version
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