Less Of More By Chris Nyeনমুনা

Chris Nye: Less of More Devotional Day 7 “Life after Death to Self” Scripture reading: Matthew 16:21-28 The life of wanting more and bigger all the time leads you toward death. The Bible would suggest that there’s a kind of dying that brings life. Jesus said that his followers must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him. Make no mistake: our path ahead—if we choose to follow Jesus—will involve a kind of death. Our allegiance must be wholly to him; as we saw yesterday, “No one can serve two masters” (Matt. 6:24). What is the cross we will bear? What must we die to? Each of the immediately preceding five devotionals outlined a move we must make: from growth to pace, isolation to connection, fame to obscurity, power to vulnerability, wealth to generosity. The New Testament uses the verb “crucify” to speak of how we will put addictions like these to death. It will be painful and slow, but its end is death (Gal. 5:24). Sin works this way: we either put it to death or it puts us to death. We must kill sin before it kills us. Yet on the other side of this death is a resurrection. There is a kind of life out there filled with more security and joy that many who have gone before us have tasted. Jesus Christ himself placed joy as the motivating center of his message of the kingdom of God. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). The people I know who have pursued such a life—one marked by vulnerability and generosity and all the rest—have never looked back. Once you plunge into this life of abandon, the life found only in death, there is no return. Because you have died to the former life and been raised in the new one, you will not be transported back. You will find true life in obscurity, in pace, in connection, and you will remain there like a person who has found a treasure. This is the “abundant life” of which Jesus speaks (John 10:10). It is that good. How have you already begun to taste the joy of the abundant life Jesus offers?