For The Glory

Jn.3:¹⁶ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Love is costly; God gave His Son and Jesus went to the cross. The way of love is costly. The way of love is the way of sacrifice. Love is sacrificial. 1Jn.4:¹⁰ “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” [with emphasis].Love will cost you, if it does not cost you then it is not going to take you anywhere. Love must cost you. That was what Jesus was trying to explain to the disciples, in Luke 24:25-27, “Don’t you understand, I have to go through these things, I have to suffer these things before I can enter into glory.” [Luke 24:25-27 paraphrased, please read]. Jesus is saying, this love is costly.

If, inspite of the options before us we choose to take the way of the Father, we choose to take the way of love. We need to realize that love is costly and it is going to cost you. But the glory always over shadows the cost. That is what Jesus is showing us and saying to us in Jn.12:²⁴ “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels–a plentiful harvest of new lives.” [with emphasis]. What Jesus is saying in essence is that the way up is down. When You enter the kingdom’s elevator, the only way to access the highest floor is to press the ground floor. It is counter intuitive, it does not make sense to the world but except the corn of wheat falls to the ground and dies.

Paul explains this same principle in 1Cor.15:³⁶ “Don’t be a fool! The seed you plant doesn’t produce life unless it dies. Right?” (The Voice). So why do you find the way of God mysterious? The way of God is not mysterious, you cannot preserve yourself and go the way of God. You cannot be yoked with the world and go the way of God. The seed of corn must fall to the ground and die first. You have to die to self and that is the beauty of the cross. God is saying it is not death for death sake, it is death for fruitfulness sake, it is death for abundance of harvest sake. Ps.30:⁵ “…Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Joy is going to come.

2Cor.4:¹⁶ “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; ¹⁸ While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (KJV, with emphasis). It is not for the trouble but for the glory.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I ask for the grace to die daily, so that my life will produce an abundant harvest and I will enter into the glory of the Father, in Jesus Name. Amen!