Our Scripture reading today is Luke 14:25-27.
Verse 26, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
We can label this verse of Scripture an attention getter. I am not saying Jesus was looking for attention, but the verse definitely gets our attention or at least it should. As a follower of Jesus Christ, our love and devotion for Him are to be so strong that no other relationship comes before our relationship with Him. Jesus even mentions the self relationship. We tend to be the one that gets in the way of full surrender to the will of God. “It is only in a comparative sense, and not literally, that the term (hate) can possibly be used; and to make this very clear, Christ said that we are to hate our own life.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Our faithfulness to God's will is a good indicator of whether or not we have died to self. He alone is worthy of our faithfulness. We should strive each and every day to accomplish who He is leading us to be and what He is leading us to do. By yielding to His Spirit and dying to self, we can without reservation follow Him!