"Finding Life"

"and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it." (Matthew 16:25b) As I was praying about this passage of Scripture this morning, I was taken captive by this concept of losing my life for Jesus. This concept of "will lose his life" is spoken of rendering it void, or putting it in a place that is deprived of the things that it would otherwise desire. Okay, I know that we are to be living for Jesus, waiting for His soon return, and looking forward to the day that we shall be forever with Him in heaven; but do I have to deprive myself of the things I love to do or have in the process? Interesting concept, to say the least. But the point that I believe Jesus is making by the context of His whole message, is about counting the cost; in other words, making the choice to follow Him being more important than life itself. Remember, Jesus began this message as an answer to the rebuke of Peter, and Peter's choice of things which mattered most: "thou savourest not the things of God, but those that be of men". If the things which I desire are contrary to the will of God, or prevent me from doing God's will; or if they are things which can be offensive to others and might cause someone to stumble; then those are the things which I must deprive myself of. Anything which gets in between me and God is considered to be an offense to God; which is the reason for Jesus to reply the way He did to Peter: "Get behind Me Satan: thou art an offense unto Me". To be an offense unto the Lord requires someone to be contrary to what the Lord is doing or wanting to do in or though our lives; in Peter's case, he was putting his desire for Jesus above that of God's. Jesus was here to do what He had begun to show His disciples; giving detailed descriptions of what should take place, so that they would begin to understand what He was here for. Now then; for us who are His sheep, we are to be yielding our lives in a way that gives Him as the Shepherd full control; which requires the losing of the life that we might otherwise desire in the flesh. In the same way, those that are coming to the Lord, must come to Him with a desire to be changed; and this change that is to happen requires dying to self. Unfortunately, there are those that come to Jesus with another desire that involves a change to their life; something more acceptable to the one they want; and the only dying which is involved in their following of Jesus is His death upon the cross... "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:" (Matthew 16:25a)