Luke 14:26
If you want to be my follower you must love me more than your own father and mother, your wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, more than your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. (NLT)
I remember reading this for the first time and considering my own life loves. I loved my husband so deeply and my children so passionately, I could not imagine loving anyone more--not even God. It was a scary, confusing concept for me. I felt so consumed with love for my husband and children, I felt at a bursting point--there was simply no excess space to give to God or anyone else.
Reasoning through the decision I was faced with--wanting to follow Jesus and yet not knowing how to place anyone above my love for my family-- I thought it might mean that I had to reduce the love I had for them in order to set God above them. I was, after all, at full capacity, or so I thought.
My friend explained to me that this verse simply meant there would be no contest for first place in my heart. No contest. If it ever came down to having to make a choice between God and anyone else on earth, it would have to be no contest--God would have to be the winner. Another human being's will--even my own will--or God's will--no contest. God would have to be the winner.
I wrestled with these conditions of discipleship for quite awhile before surrendering my heart to God. It is a stance that has been challenged many times in my Christian life. Our superlative love for God is Satan's first target in our lives.
The amazing thing I discovered was that loving God did not reduce my capacity for loving my family or anyone else. In fact, it expanded my capacity for love in ways I never dreamed. It gave me new reasons to love and new ways of expressing that love. As I began putting the commands of God for relationships into practice, I found that by loving God and his will first, I was able to love everyone else in my life better and more fully than I'd ever have been able to on my own.
It's that funny thing about putting the will of God into practice: you think you're giving something up and yet you get much more in return. The saying is not trite: you can't out-give God.
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