Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Guest (Female): Welcome to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Have you ever thought it's not easy to lose? Well, Joni has, and here she is to explain.

Joni Eareckson Tada: I was thinking the other day when I came across Matthew chapter 19, verses 29 and 30, where Jesus says, "Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

Thankfully, my sisters and my father and my mother were all followers of Jesus. I never had to walk away from the Eareckson family in order to claim Christ as Lord and Savior. Plenty of my friends have. Whether they are Jewish or Muslim, they have had to lose their close relationships with their family members when they embraced Christ. The concept of losing is an integral part of the Christian faith.

I remember several years ago when Ted Turner, who turned a bankrupt Atlanta advertising company into CNN, a media empire, called Christianity a religion for losers. Later on, he retracted his comment and apologized for his words. Was he right? Christianity is for losers. It's a religion of losers.

Jesus himself says in Luke chapter 17, "Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." To follow Jesus means to lose oneself to this world. It means losing all your winnings in this world in order to lay up treasures in the next. To be a disciple of Christ means to annul your pride, reverse your fleshly wants, lose your affections for worldly idols, and put behind the carefully constructed plans for your personal success. Believe me, that goes against our natural grain.

I know it's how I feel. I constantly have to examine my priorities and my wants and wishes. Am I watching too much of the Food Channel? Should I be spending this much money on lipstick and mascara? Do I really need a second dessert? Am I spending too much time on my computer? It is Sunday. Should I really be working on this project? If there's a financial windfall, am I fattening and widening my personal borders, or shouldn't I be giving this extra money to that ministry that advances Christ's gospel?

Constantly, I'm having to ask myself, "Do I want to hold on to this or let it go? Do I want to keep this, or can I live without it?" You and I, as part of our daily Christian walk, must look at our choices through the lens of Luke chapter 17. If we try to keep our life, if we try to keep our wants and wishes, we'll lose. If we let them go, if we diminish our appetites and desires, we end up preserving our lives.

It is all about losing. Losing our winnings in this world is a perfectly practical way to follow in the steps of Jesus. He absolutely delights in those who consider themselves the last, the least, the littlest, and the most lost without Him. Christianity is not a religion of winners. It is a faith journey of overcomers who learn to gain by losing.

There is one respect in which Christians do not lose. We do not lose heart. Second Corinthians chapter 4 says never lose heart. What we shake off here on earth, we accrue a hundred times more in heaven. Today, in what ways can you lose yourself to this world? Humble yourself before God and let go of that possession or relationship, that title or position, and give it to the Lord.