When the Lord calls us to be His own He calls us to a entirely new life, one that we are not familiar with.  It is a life of surrender and self denial a life of following  Jesus all the way. But if I am honest with you, a life that is easy to talk about but much harder to do.  In Luke's gospel chapter 9 our Master makes all too clear what is required of those whochoose to follow Jesus.   ^23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ^24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. ^25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? ^26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. These verses are packed with challenging truths and troubling realities of just how much the Lord is asking for all of us who bear His name. The words of Jesus begin with a condition given in two letters, "If".  It is not a given that we will follow Jesus, not a given that we will take up our cross but it is a choice for ourselves.  If we have it in our heart to say yes to Jesus than the choice we are making is not only an informed one but a life changing one. The call is clear to surrender every day, to deny ourselves from our own desires and follow the steps the Lord has marked out for us.  Think for a second at just a few of the things that Lord says that dying to ourselves will entail. Don't hate those who hate you, Love your enemies, pray for those who hurt you, if someone offends you turn the other cheek so they can do it again. 

Don't put your self first, put everyone else first. Be a servant, wash the feet of others, forgive every time, and keep forgiving. Love like Jesus.  These are only a few of the things that dying to ourselves will mean but we have no options in the matter. Is it possible that the reason that so many of struggle is because of the fact that we have not made Jesus truly Lord of our life. If we want to follow after Him then we have to make a choice to make Him Lord and to live the life that He longs for us to lives.  There is only one problem with that, it goes completely against our human nature, we want what we want and have the hardest time to surrender even a small area of our life.  But Jesus said if a man wants to come after me he must (emphasis on no choice) deny himself. God's call for you and me is not a life as we want it, but a life as the Lord wants it.  In the days to come we will have to take a hard look at what we say living for Jesus is and what we have made it.  Jesus says take up your cross and follow me.  The question is will we?