Devotionals by Raul Ries
SUNDAY October 25, 2026
A Call to Live Your Life for Christ
"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
Matthew 16:25
What are most people mainly focused on today? They are wholly focused on themselves. They are into fitness, health, and securing finances for their future. It is all about self––me, myself, and I. When a person’s focus in life is all about themselves, it can turn into self-preservation. They certainly have no desire to live a sacrificial life for Christ.
People care about saving their lives; they value life and want to get the most they can out of it. They do not want to risk losing their lives or all the wealth they have gained. Jesus calls them to a higher calling––to follow Him and to forsake this world and all it can offer.
If you love the things of this world, Jesus literally said that in the end, you will lose everything, including your life, for all eternity. Yet if you choose to give up your life to follow Jesus, you will gain it. Your soul is eternal––not temporal. Your mortal body and the things you have attained in life are temporal. Your body will go back into the earth, but your soul will live and either go to heaven or hell. I tell people often, “Everything is going to burn one day!” Why not have the right eternal perspective in life? It is only what you do for Christ that will truly last.
Jesus continued to reason with His followers: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). His questions cause us to consider where we will shall spend eternity. Do we really want to be lost for all eternity in a place of torment when redemption is made freely available to us now? Why not follow Christ? Has He not proved His love for us by dying on the Cross
Think for a moment about the things in this world that you are wanting to hold on to. Let go! Follow Christ! A life lived for Christ is a life well-lived.
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
~Galatians 2:20 NIV~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
About Somebody Loves You
About Raul Ries
Raul Ries is the Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel Golden Springs and President of Somebody Loves You Ministries. After his miraculous conversion in 1971, Raul began to read and study the Bible extensively even though he had a limited education. In 1974 he began a home Bible study with seven other committed individuals. Soon, he started to preach and counsel youth during the noon hour at his former high school, Baldwin Park High. Calvary Chapel West Covina grew out of Raul's home fellowship, as well as his Kung-Fu studio, and was soon meeting weekly at an old converted Safeway store. In 1993, the congregation moved to Diamond Bar and occupied a 101,000 square-foot corporate building on 28 acres. Calvary Chapel Golden Springs (as it is now called) draws between 10,000 - 12,000 in attendance weekly.
Author of several books, including Fury to Freedom (the story of his early life and dramatic conversion), Raul Ries has also produced three films: Fury to Freedom (feature film dramatization of the book); A Quiet Hope (a riveting and stirring documentary detailing seven soldier's accounts of the Vietnam War and its aftermath); and A Venture in Faith (a documentary of the history of the Calvary Chapel movement).
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(909) 396-1884