³⁴And Jesus called [to Him] the throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his cross, and joining Me as a disciple and siding with My party] follow with Me [continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me].                                            -Mark 8:34

I know we talk a lot about God giving us the desires of our hearts, God having an amazing plan for our lives, and Him causing us to live abundant lives, all of which are true. However, I think in pursuing those things, we often miss out on the avenue God intends us to take to get those things.

When we give our hearts to God, we no longer own our lives, He owns them. It’s not up to us to choose what we want to do and pursue, it’s up for us to discover those things which God has planned for us.

Jesus said in Mark 8:35 that, “Whoever wants to save his life, will lose it, and whoever gives up his life for His sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

Every morning we wake up, we have 2 choices: Deny, forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of ourselves and our desires in order to pursue what He would have us pursue or live for ourselves and what we want and think we need.

We all need to be willing to do anything, live anywhere, give everything away, in a moment’s notice for His sake. The real abundant life is living everyday in His presence, doing what He says to do, regardless of the cost.

Everyday we need to say to ourselves, just like John the Baptist did, “HE MUST Increase, and I must decrease.”

Ask God to open up your eyes to things that you’re holding onto that are holding you back from following Him with every fiber in your being. When he reveals them to you, let go and pursue Him with everything you got – you’ll find abundant life in the pursuit.

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty I Corinthians 1:27

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” -Psalm 14:1

I used to work at a Bank. I got to interact with hundreds of people everyday and I got to know our regular customers pretty well. One of my favorite customers was an engineer who would always come in chomping a cigar. By the world’s standards, this guy was successful. He was smart and had a ton of money!

Every time he came in, he would share with me “Keys to Success in Life”. We would have some good conversations, until I left for Africa for two weeks. When I came back and saw him again, I greeted him, and he responded, “O the moron’s back from serving God! I’m disappointed in you, I thought you were smarter than that, Doug (My real name).”

(I thought this Picture Was Pretty Funny, I obviously Don’t Believe Atheists Threaten Christians)

From that day on, everyday he would come in, it would be to harass me for my beliefs. He never tried to disprove God, but just tried to make me feel like an idiot for believing in Him. People at the bank  would actually apologize to me for him when he would leave!

I’ve Lived Without God, and Lived for God – There is no Comparison

My response for a while was to just ignore his attacks,  try to have a normal conversation, and love on him as much as I could. He kept this up and so one day I asked him an honest question . . . “Can I ask you a question?” “Yes” he responded. “Do you enjoy your life? Do you have a great family life? You have vacation houses and all the money someone could want… Are you happy?”

“No, my life sucks, I hate it.” He said.

He didn’t have to say much after that. I think he got the point . . . after that moment he started asking me questions about God. He actually invited me to his house for coffee with him and his wife to talk about God. After that we had great conversations and I know that I had the privilege of planting seeds in his heart and I pray that others will water it, and God will take care of the rest.

Whats my point? I’m not saying that every atheist on the planet hates their lives, but I can tell you that they are missing out on the life Jesus provided for them through the cross, and if they’d look deep in their hearts, I promise you that they know there is something more to life than the life they’ve been living.

Philemon 1:6 says, “I pray that everyone who meets you find out how wonderful it is to live in Christ.” That’s something I pray everyday.” Most people are turned off by Christians – Why? Because they know some! They think, if being a Christian is like being like Aunt Mildred, Forget it! When people who don’t live for God see our lives, they should literally be thinking, they have something I don’t and I want it!

If there are people you know that don’t believe in God – don’t condemn them, love them. Love always wins and never fails. Don’t try to prove to them God exists – show them God exists by living your life for God. When a door opens to share Jesus with them do it! I promise you that one day – they’ll come back and thank you for it!

⁴ Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” ⁵ The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. ⁶ But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”                                      -Acts 3:4-6

It’s amazing to me how many people want help in their lives, but when you go to help them, they say, “I want you to help, but you’re not going to like…uh… bring God into this are you?”

I love this story in Acts about a lame man on the street. He was constantly in need of help. Everyday he would sit outside the temple begging. He sees Peter and John and expects them to help. He expected them to give him money. Instead, Peter says listen, I’m going to give you the only thing I have that can actually help you. What was it? Jesus.

Giving this man money wouldn’t have helped him at all. He would have used it and been back at the temple begging for money again the very next day. Peter and John refused to give him something that would, in the end, leave him the same. Instead, they gave Him Jesus, and the man was healed and his life was never the same again.

The only thing we can give others in need that will actually help them is God.

In most cases, I’ve found that most people that don’t want you to bring God into the equation, don’t really want to change their lives. They want their circumstances to change while they continue to live the lifestyle they are living which is impossible.

The greatest thing we can do for anyone is point them to an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Do that, and their lives will never be the same.