The life that you and I are being called to is not like the natural life that we know so well in the natural, it is a spiritual walk with a different set of guidelines, restrictions and opportunities. The Spiritual life of a disciple of Jesus is one in which the Lord is constantly calling us to come closer to Him, to be more like Him and to be a reflection of only Him. It is a spiritual life of daily surrender and fresh devotion, one that will form in us the image of God.  That may sound like a very heady thing to say but isn't that exactly what Paul meant when he said, "Christ in me the hope of Glory", Christ's life being see and manifested in and through us is what real discipleship is all about. That is the good news; the tough news is that the life of Jesus can only be formed in me as I lay down my life daily.  The Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians 15:31 "I die daily..." referring to his constant willingness to offer himself to the Lord as a sacrifice and a martyr if need be. In other words as much as I would like to make a one time commitment to discipleship, laying aside my own rights in a moment of complete and total surrender of myself to Him, I can not.  We can only make that surrender on a daily basis, because each day will have challenges that will attempt to pull us away from that commitment and each day will have needs that will drive us to a place of fresh realization of just what that daily surrender will mean. Paul said that every day he had to mortify the flesh, dealing with his own desires or the distractions' that arise around him in order to keep the focus of my life of surrender with Jesus.

This is where the struggle comes for me. The life that God has called us to, is constant call of dying to myself, and just when I think there is nothing else that needs to die, He shows me entire rooms of my life full of things that do not reflect His life in me. He does this, not so that I will get depressed and say that the goal is too lofty, but in order for me to realize my complete and total dependency on the Lord for daily strength in this life. Jesus longs for you and I to know Him on a far deeper level than we can imagine and that is why we are to surrender more and more of ourselves every day so that we are decreasing in importance and He our Lord and Master is increasing. In the days to come we will look at what discipleship is from the Lord's perspective and what it means for us to become His disciples.  But there is no substitute for you and me making this daily determination of laying our lives before the Lord, and becoming living sacrifices for God.  Lord teach me that in order to understand your life, I must die to myself daily.