Welcome!
Today: Count the cost!
Passage: Luke 14
31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. (Luke 14, NIV 84)-emphasis added
Sometimes, our calculations misfire! And then, we are like, “I never thought it was this much!”
Jesus is advising people to count the cost before doing anything
Overconfidence is a problem, just like being under-confident
We need the right type/amount of confidence
Whenever Jesus said someone “be healed”, they were healed. He said, “Lazarus, come out” and the dead man came out alive!
But when we try to do the same, nothing happens!
Then, we end up blaming others for their lack of faith
We treat God the same way; we need God to meet all our needs, but when it comes to doing something for God, we are too busy with what God has already given us!
Every day we go to God asking, “Lord, you have some (blessing) for me?
God can be like “you have something for me?”
In our job, we do the work for some firm or company and get paid; but it has been such a long time God has been paying us, for doing nothing for Him!
There is a certain cost for following Jesus; but it is costlier in the end, not to follow Him!
We need to know God first; but we also need to know the devil’s ways of work
We are at war with the devil; it is important to know your enemy
Many are “trapped” because they misunderstood/miscalculated the devil
They scream like, ”I don’t care the devil”, sitting right in the palm of his hand!
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Eph 5, NIV 84)-emphasis added
Even as we trust God, we are warned/cautioned to be wise, planned, and to have an estimate of things ahead of us
God can help us with that; we need to be humble enough, to ask and to learn
God bless you
BG
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to be wise and to know the various ways the devil works, so that I can be victorious in the end. Help me to know you better, because you destroyed the works and schemes of the devil. Amen