“WHAT PROFIT IS THERE FOR ONE TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD YET LOSE OR FORFEIT HIMSELF?” LK 9:22-25
Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary and Joseph.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Then he said to all,
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?” LK 9:22-25
Why do we have to deny ourselves? We have inherited a fallen human nature, a loss of grace/holiness. A broken relationship with God, the Father, due to the Fall of Adam and Eve. We have an inclination to sin each day we wake (concupiscence). Oh, how many times I have followed my own desires instead of the Lord’s.
What cross? Our daily crosses. Everyone suffers. It is relative to the situation your are dealt in life, but everyone suffers. Jesus gives purpose to our suffering and fashions our daily crosses to what we can deal with and sometimes what we can’t deal with, we can offer them up and receive grace which is necessary to reach heaven. The saints thanked God for their crosses. Our crosses are where we learn to embrace Christ and recognize we need Him falling to our knees to ask for Him to give us what we truly need, His grace, comfort, peace, and joy.
It is impossible to be holy without God’s grace. Salvation is a complete gift along with our lives. Therefore, we must lose our life to save it. We must become suffering servants like the Master Suffering Servant. Finally, our lives are not about us, they are meant to be given away. Look at a crucifix and really try to figure out the Truth about our lives.
When we believe Jesus resurrected and everything He says is true, we come to His feet each day in the Gospels to learn how to be a good and faithful servant. We are asked by Christ to lose our life for the sake of the Gospel. Our suffering has purpose and the saints even looked for ways to suffer more. Why? Jesus gave all. Even more important, He loved doing the will of the Father.
The will of the Father was for Jesus to give up His life for the world. We could never even come close to paying Him back. He paid the ultimate sacrifice to save you and me. He continues to sacrifice today to stay with us hidden behind bread and wine, so that we will have spiritual food for the journey. He forgives when we are truly sorry and have fallen. Each time we fall and go through suffering, we become stronger and closer to Him. He strengthens us, never leaves us, always forgives, and is waiting daily for an invitation to be with us in our suffering.
Last, and most importantly, the greatest way to follow Jesus is by being detached from material things. ”What profit is there to gain the whole world but forfeit one’s life.” We are so distracted from what matters most. It takes daily submission to God’s will, prayer, silence, bringing ourselves to the sacraments, and continual learning and instruction by Jesus in the Gospels.
We are human and we quickly forget. We are a mystery to ourselves. We need a rock, never changing Truth, to come back to so we do not get off the beaten track. I need Him constantly throughout my day. He has left us with the Holy Spirit to help us understand His Truths and pass them on to others. How shallow is our faith if we cannot pray in public and dialogue with others what we believe.
“Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words
in this faithless and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of
when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Ouch! I have a lot of work to do! If we believe in the resurrection of Jesus which makes all of His Words True, this Lent may we begin to live in our hearts and minds like Christ. Christ is not dead, He is fully alive today with us. He resurrected!!!!! If we want to follow Him, we are called to die to self, offer up our daily crosses, strengthen our faith through His teachings, put on the Armor of God, and begin to fight Satan and grow in holiness! It is impossible to follow Him, without His grace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “Come to me all who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” ”My heart is restless until it rests in You.” Amen.
Today’s challenge: Lent is here, make a commitment to grow in holiness, fight Satan, and make time to pray and reflect on the Scriptures. Establish a good habit of this during Lent so that it continues throughout the rest of your life so you can look back at next year’s Lent and say, “I have grown in holiness/ a more loving person the last 40 days.” Reflect on suffering and its benefits!
Be a servant, become a saint!
#Christian YOLO
I think it is saying you have to leave your ego behind to fully believe in Jesus
I think it is saying you have to leave your ego behind to fully believe in Jesus. I
In the Scripture today I feel like Jesus is telling us to follow Him and just talk to Him. Following Him will make us better people and becoming more Holy from following Him and praying.
This Gospel is telling me that if we want to be a Catholic we are going to have to make sacrifices. We are going to have to take up our cross like Jesus said in the Gospel. I think this is a great Gospel for the Lenten season.
We must be loving people, and we must give of ourselves for other people, especially Jesus, because as it says “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” If we give of ourself for other people and are loving and kind, we will find favor in God.
What reached out to me was when Jesus said, “take up his cross daily and follow me.” What this means to me is that not every day will be easy for us, but if we offer up our suffering to God and do our best to follow God everything will work out.
He is telling us what is going to happen to him after lent is over he is going to give his life on the cross for us and raise on the third day. He wants us to pick up our cross and follow him and wants us to be with him for eternity in heaven.
it mosly to keppo n or lint and jesus sacfist us and we nave to give up sunthing to show thanks to him for sindinf his oly son to die for us and to show us that wre are worthet to hem ether way wree are
We are nothing without Jesus. He came to save us and we still ignore his calls to us. We need to be open to his graces so we can rest in peace forever in heaven with him.
Today´s scripture passage should definitely be heard by everyone. The main message I took from this was that if we are truly in love with Jesus, we would lay our lives down to him. Am I saying go and die no. We need to lay our lives down through good deeds and prayer. What he means is that if you truly know him, you would care for others, and help others in need instead of being selfess.
In this Gospel, Jesus tells us to pick up our cross. Jesus does not mean a literal cross when he says this but instead means that we should pick up our burdens and hardships and offer them up to him. Another thing that sticks out is, “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” We should not value this world we have right now. We should value our world in heaven.
I think jesus Is saying that we must deny ourselves the things that we like but are a sin and we must start to talk to jesus and pray to him every day and try to be more holy.
If we give our lives to Jesus, then we are saving our lives.
Jesus tells us to take up our crosses daily and follow Him. I think this is very fitting for Lent because that is one of the forms of penance. Lent is a time of repentance. We need to follow Jesus into the desert for forty days before He rises from the dead and saves us.
IN todays reading its saying that we must strive to act like god by leading in example. Jesus set the very first example of giving your life away and showing how we can take up our own cross and follow him everyday. And if one person does it its sure to continue.
A phrase that stuck out to me is, the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. I like this phrase because this is when Jesus tells his disciples that he will have to die. Another reason I like it is because it means to me that he is going to take all sins away and die for us.
In order to truly be with God we have to give ourselves up mind, body, and soul. We have to take up our cross (our pains, sorrows, suffering) and follow Him without looking back. It is so hard to pray, fast, and give but it is what Jesus needs of us. We need to conform our wills more perfectly to the will of God so that we may lead a truly happy life with Him, not only in Heaven, but here, now.
As children of God, we must acknowledge our crosses. It’s okay to carry crosses, everyone carries crosses. Our crosses are always there and they cause us to struggle. They cause us to struggle a lot. There’s something that we can do about our crosses, and that is letting Jesus carry them. Jesus loves us, and He is more than willing to carry our crosses as long as we let Him carry them. God gave us free will, and Jesus knows we have free will. It’s our choice if we want to love Jesus the same way he loves us. He won’t force you to let him carry your cross, he will only offer you.
Why do we deny Jesus? He literally saved us but we denied Him, He told us we would but the disciples said they would never. But when it came they betrayed Him, just like us. When we are hanging out and people are making fun of you because you believe in Him we will deny. We need to fix that and embrace in Him.
our crosses. this is what struck me because of what he means. we have take up all our worries and doubts and give them to Jesus.
In todays scripture Jesus is telling us to follow him by being like Simon helping him carry Jesus’s cross we suffer because of the suffering he gave for us we must be patient and humble in these 40 days of lent and follow what Jesus told us to do.
Jesus went through a great amount of suffering to save us. when He says “take up your cross” does he mean take a cross and die like I did? NO, He what He means by take up your cross is take responsibility for your sins. be responsable, take control of your sins and follow Him.
Jesus has done so much for us. God asked Jesus “Are you sure you’re willing to do this” and Jesus said yes. He has given up so much for us. We have to follow Jesus to understand this, we have to follow him to know that he will love us forever.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. To die for God is the one thing everyone should want. If we want to save ourselves on earth and we have a ton of stuff and money we will be the least of Gods people. But whoever gives their life to God, will be one of the higher people
I think that today’s scripture is saying that we need to stay with God and not care about all the material goods on earth. We have to find a way to stick with God so that we may be saved and get the eternal reward. (Heaven)
Jesus tells us to pick up our cross, not just all the hardships, struggles, and pains, but also our mind body and soul, and we need to offer it up to him. We need to give it all to Jesus, cause it is worth it in the long run. Cause in the end, everything we had on earth, won’t matter.
we must lose our life to save it. This is an important phrase, when we sin Jesus still loves us, yet when one mishap in our lives happen we go right ahead and blame God and Jesus, but they still love us. We must die to save ourselves that’s what it is saying. Doing a random act of kindness will and can change a persons day or attitude.
Jesus says that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross, it means that we must be humble and realize that getting to heaven will not be easy so we must fast and pray and do alms giving. in these forty days of lent is God testing us to be a more caring and loving person. He wants us to “take up our cross” and follow him so that we can get to heaven. Taking up your cross doesn’t have to be something big like ending world hunger, It can be a simple thing like holding the door for someone or doing an extra chore at home.
We should not have our Earthly desires control us. We need to pray everyday we need to give our time to Jesus. It doesn’t matter if we have sports or the super bowl is on. We need to find time to take up our cross everyday, even if it’s only for about 30 minutes.
We are nothing without God.We need to follow him and learn from him if we want to be with him. He gave up his life for us and we still refuse and deny him. We always say we would never do anything like that but are you truly ready for when the time does come and you either have to accept him or deny him??
I think that Jesus is telling us that if we love him and would give our lives to him then we can help and save people.
what every you do give your life up for God and in return you’ll get eternity with him
Jesus has a cross.I have a cross.We all have a Cross.We all have a cross that gives us suffering and helps us understand some things.But,
some people aren’t always so welcoming to this suffering,They blame it on Jesus,They say its not fair.What REALLY isn’t fair is saying that
he should suffer but we should not,What if we were Jesus?We suffered and you give the world some suffering just to make them understand as a person and punishment for sin,but.People blamed us for it,people act like Jesus is the bad guy,blame everything on him,
if someone gets fired,”Oh,Jesus I pray everyday lord!Why are you making me miserable!”Hes not,Its your actions that build your life.
In today’s gospel when it says take up your own cross I think this means that we need to give up the things that make us sin and give our lives to Jesus and let him lead the way and follow his will.
Jesus loves us so much that he gave his life away for us. Can you imagine dying the death that Jesus died for somebody you love. Jesus loves us no matter what after we deny him after we don’t listen to him and after we sin again and again and again. This lent we give something for Jesus. It dosen’t matter if it’s something small. As long as it was out of love for Jesus Christ. We are created with original sin but once we get baptized we are apart of a community. We care for one another. We don’t have to be friends with everybody but we do have to be kind to everybody.
We must be loving people, and we must give of ourselves for other people, especially Jesus, because as it says “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” If we give of ourself for other people and are loving and kind, we will find favor in God.
If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. It’s from help someone at something.
We should pray everyday to get to know God. The whole point of life is to love God, and we have to learn from the greatest lover. We should be giving up something during these 40 days that will make us a better and loving person.
The most important thing I gathered from this passage is that earth isn’t for us to have fun and do whatever we want, its to prepare for God and Heaven. In order to have eternal life with God, we must dedicate our earthly life to Him.
I think this means If you want to be savied but you don’t try you won’t be saved but if you are wanting to give your life up for the Lord and work every day trying to get to Heaven then you will reach it and God will be waiting for you with open arms.
We need to put God first. If we do this we will be rewarded with eternal life. We need to believe everything he says and put his words into action in our life.
give up our ego and be genuine to god take up your cross confess your sins. be the best version of yourself and never let anyone take away your truth. we often find ourselfs talking against belifes all so we look “cool” we just have to learn to fight against it and be our true genuine selfs that god called us to be.
We must sacrifice to follow Jesus. We need to take up our on crosses and offer them up for someone else who is in pain or offer it up to God. We were not born perfect. We are born with sin in us and we needed baptism to take it away. There will always be someone whose life is worse than yours. Be thankful and offer up your suffering.
In the scripture I think that what it means is you need your stop chasing your ego and instead chase Jesus because he is the only thing that is going to matter in the future not your ego
What stuck out to me is that It is impossible to follow Him, without His grace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. “Come to me all who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” ”My heart is restless until it rests in You.” Amen. This stuck out to me because Jesus wants to have a relationship with you you just have to let him in and you have to learn to want a relationship with him too.
I think what God is trying to say is that if you give up your life for God, he’ll save it and give you life in heaven. You need to take up your cross and go with Jesus and leave all material needs in life when we go with Jesus.
In today’s reading it tells us to take up our cross and follow Jesus. I think that means that we need to strive to be more like Jesus and love other like he did
I think the scripture is saying that we need to take our suffering to God. Give it to him and let it go and put it in the past and just worry about being the best like Christ. We will find good in giving up our worries and working towards Jesus because Jesus takes away our suffering and worry.
Be responsible to yourself. Take care of yourself and be gentle. We do not need a parent to come over and say hey don’t forget to do your taxes and feed your kids every day at noon. You do not need a babysitter to come babysit you all the time. You put your own needs with yourself and not others unless you are a child of course but if you are 30 and still get told what to do by your parents then you need to remind yourself to do it and not your parent.
Today’s Gospel is telling us that there is no point in having all the riches and everything you could ever want on Earth, because God has everything and as long as you listen to Him, follow Him, and follow the 10 Commandments, then you will have everything in Heaven
Each time we fall and go through suffering, we become stronger and closer to Him. He strengthens us, never leaves us, always forgives, and is waiting daily for an invitation to be with us in our suffering. God is with us even with our ups and downs. we need to
get closer to God always but its lent so we need to get even closer and try even harder to be with him. Lent is here and i am making a commitment to giving up pop and candy during lent and to spend more time with God in prayer or even in silence.
Jesus tells us to take up our cross every day. Jesus took up an actual cross then he dies on that cross for us. He also tells us that having less is having more. We don’t enter into Heaven with worldly things so why give your life up to it then God who saved you. Took up His accrual cross and dies for US.
In order for us to get to Heaven, we must leave behind our selfish life and take up our cross with Jesus this lent.
we must lose our lives to save it, when we sin Jesus still loves us, yet when one mistake in our lives happens we go blame God, but He still loves us. We must die to save ourselves that’s what it is saying. Doing a random act of kindness will and can change a person’s day or life.
It ´ s easy to get caught up in the sin of the world. It´s easy to think that we have to be cool or popular to have a place in this world, but it isn’t always that way. You don´t have to have good looks to get a girlfriend or boyfriend. You don´t have to be popular to get friends. You can be anything in this world, and that includes being a Catholic. You can have any interests, and that includes getting to Heaven. So wherever Jesus takes you, take up your cross and follow Him.
We must deny our egos, sins, temptations, and desires to follow Jesus. We must deny ourselves and take up suffering to have eternal happiness and life in Heaven when we die. This world is simply just a test to see who is worthy to spend the rest of their life with God in Heaven.
I think this scripture is about how Jesus had to die to save us. He didn’t just die to save us but it also showed that he was human and could be killed at the hands of man. Like all humans he died.
Jesus says that he will rise after three days. We should give up our lives for Jesus. He says for those who lose their life for him will save it.
Jesus is predicting what will happen to him. He says if you risk your life for Jesus you will be saved, but if you only wish to be saved you won’t get as far as those who risk their lives.
I think today’s scripture passage is telling us that everyone has to make sacrifices, and it makes us better people. God sacrificed Himself completely for us, so we should do it back to show our love for Him. We need to focus less on the things that aren’t important because in the end, all that matters is that we make it to heaven.
What I think this scripture is saying is that we must follow God. We must follow him like his apostles did. It is important that we do because as long as we do will are sure to have eternal life in Heaven with him.
We deny ourselves and self-hate ourselves. But Jesus tells us to leave that all behind and follow Him.
I think this simply goes to show that we need to let go of our ego and self-worth, and realize that others are more important. My parents have always taught me this acronym: JOY. Jesus, Others, Yourself. Jesus is always first and foremost. Others then take place behind him. And Finally, yourself. when you give of yourself, putting Jesus and others first, that is the path to true joy.
Jesus tells us to pick up our crosses for Him, like He did for us , so that we can be saved. We pick up our crosses by denying our ego and finding our true self in Jesus. Lent is supposed to help us have a closer relationship with Jesus. So we should take our time during Lent, to find the good in us with Jesus Christ.
what i think this is trying to convey is that we need to give up all our worldly thing and presue God fully with all our heart. we need to give our worldly things, that is not your phone or something else but your ego and your pride as well.
i think that it is talking about us caring too much about material things when we could use some of they time to focus on God. we could use the time we usually spend on technology to pray and get closer to God.
what the scripture is telling me is that when lent starts we go through the same journey jesus went through and the same suffering. but He is still the only one to save us at the end of lent when he resurrects from the dead.
We as Christians need to give ourselves up for Christ. People need to realize that he died for us and our sins. one part in the scripture that stuck out to me was when Jesus said “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” This quote really stuck out to me, because Jesus is telling us straight up that we should follow Him and when we pass away, we will be saved. The gospel is also saying that we need to take up our own cross. A little bit of suffering is fine. Look at what Jesus had to do. He suffered way worse than we all have and will.
Today’s scripture is trying to tell us to forget all the wanted goods and our life and to focus on Jesus. Jesus says that all our wanted goods do not follow us and come with us to heaven. They stay here on earth forever. So what’s the point of worshiping these goods that your gonna have for some little time to do something that you’re gonna have to be with for eternity.
Jesus is always there for us when we need him. When we need Jesus all we have to do is read the bible or go to church or just pray. We need Jesus to make it to heaven.
“Oh, how many times I have followed my own desires instead of the Lord’s.” This stood out to me because we all tend to get carried away with what the devil is tempting us to do but have to learn to block him out and listen to what God has to say to us and to realize that we should put others needs before ours. Everyday there are things said to others that shouldn’t be said. We just need to learn that people are fragile and most people are broken inside. We just need to build those people up instead of bringing those people down. One it will make us happy and two it will make the other person happy that someone cares enough about them.
My take away from this is that to be with Jesus, we must be like Jesus. We must be selfless, give ou lives to others so to save theirs and our own.
“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?” I think this phrase is telling us: what’s the point of getting everything we want when we forget who we came from, God. Many times we have found ourselves chasing materialistic things, rather than chasing God. We should give our self to God, because only then will we get the greatest reward.
I think this is telling us that we are nothing without God. We must take up our own cross every day and follow and love Jesus through everything. We must realize and be humble that without God we would never be here.
This Scripture is talking about how Jesus is telling us that if we want to follow him we must deny ourselves,and to take our daily cross which it means that we must put everything last because Jesus goes first and we have to take challenges every day Jesus also say ´but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.´ it talks about if we give our life to Jesus he will save us.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?” I think that this scripture reflection shows that we need to do things through Christ. Everything we do needs to be for Him and for us to get into Heaven. When we know something is bad we need to stop doing it!!
I think the Scripture is saying Jesus wants us to follow Him. We can follow Jesus by listening to Him. We can also pray and go to mass. If we fall away from Jesus, we have to return to Him.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” I feel like people misunderstand what taking up your cross means. What taking up my cross means to me is that I need to follow Jesus and be like Him. Not ACTUALLY carry a cross, but be like Christ. He loved and cared for others, so we need to do the same. He was selfless, so we need to be selfless. Jesus should be our idol. We should look up to Him as a Father, because He is!
It is saying that we need to not have such a big ego that we regret Jesus. We need to give up our life for Jesus and not be selfish.
I think the scripture is saying that we must be able to stay humble and praise God, for if we lose him we lose ourselves. We must remain humble in God’s love and not build up our egos just because of our wealth or status. God wants us to be happy but it is not right for us to think we are better than anyone.
This scripture makes me think about the question “Would I truly die in the name of Jesus Christ?” The part that probably hit me the most was “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” It’s getting over that self ego that you have for yourself. You have to let that wall down between you and God. He can’t help you if you don’t let him. He is never going to force himself on you. You have to go out and seek him.
Ash Wednesday is a day of sacrificing and getting ashes to reconcile you from sin with ashes when they say, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”.
“Take up your cross” I think that the hardest thing about taking up our cross is that we don’t want to suffer. We know it won’t be easy, and we aren’t willing to endure what suffering will cause us to endure. But Jesus knew it was going to be hard. He knew that it would be hard, but He went for it anyway. He did it for me. He did it for you. So why not us? People boast about how strong they are, but the moment life gets tough, when real suffering kicks in, we aren’t ready for it. We don’t want it. We need to want it. We have to want to take up our cross. We have to choose.
Why can’t we be there for Him? He has always been there for us when we need Him and we never leave us alone, but we do. We either don’t believe in Him or deny Him when that is wrong. We should believe and learn more about it. We need to grow closer to our faith instead of getting away from it.
At the start of this Scripture God is talking about how the Son of man will suffer greatly for our sake. The main problem in our faith is not trusting in God and thinking that the bad things in life is because He isn’t watching us. He always watches us it’s just we aren’t fully trusting in Him. We can never repay Jesus for what He did for us, it’s just if we choose to follow Him, and choose to reach him.
Getting to the Lord will not be easy. We will have to suffer greatly to have the reward of eternal life. God never said it would be easy. Expect the unexpected, ,and don’t be surprised when it doesn’t go your way.
i love this because it shows that you have to love God and really know him to get to heaven. And also you have to submit your will to God
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” We have to know that we are human and we are not perfect and we must relize that to follow the Man on the Cross
I think it is telling me that if I am very proud of myself and think I am the best and have a giant ego God wouldnt as gladly take me as he would if I was humble and calm and I know that there is always someone better than me because God exists God is better than us.
“Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” This stuck out to me because we are always worried about what others think about us. Some high schoolers stop going to church because they feel like they will get made fun of and be considered weird. We need to spread the word of God and not be embarrassed about it.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it
if we want to have a good life with Christ we must give our life to him.
Everyone suffers. It is relative to the situation your are dealt in life, but everyone suffers. Jesus gives purpose to our suffering and fashions our daily crosses to what we can deal with and sometimes what we can’t deal with, we can offer them up and receive grace which is necessary to reach heaven. I like this because we carry our own cross every single day but we just don’t have pain by it but we do have spiritual pain because we are carrying our sin.
“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world, yet lose or forfeit himself?” We need to put God before us in all that we do. We shouldn’t make earthly things our idle. We need to hold ourselves accountable, and give God everything.
I think what i think of when i read this if you want to be saved and reach heaven with God you have to give your material things and be more spiritual and have a stronger relationship with Him .
In this gospel it tells us that we have to carry a figurative cross. What it means is we have to lift up our struggles to God.
We must learn that Jesus is the only thing we need. Sure video games and t.v are enjoyable but God really fills our hearts. If we want to get to heaven we have to love God. I’m not saying that we should give up everything and live penniless honestly we can have things we enjoy but God comes first.
It is impossible to be holy without God’s grace. We need to take our suffering to God, and give our lives to him. During Lent and in our everyday lives we need to worship God and give him our worries.
Today the scripture said to me that we should not focus on earthly things but focus on God. There is no greater reward than heaven. I heaven we do not bring our earthly belongings to heaven so why should we focus on them. God will be there for us in heaven and we will not need anything else.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
We have to fully submit to God. If we want to get to heaven its not going to be easy.
Today reading is about how we need to give up our lives for God. We shouldn’t want riches and luxuries because if we have that on Earth we won’t get those things in Heaven. We need to deny all of the temptations of Earth and follow God.
What stuck out to me is that we all are suffering and caring our own cross. This stuck out to me because Jesus is saying that everyone has a cross that we’re caring and make are way closer to him.
He is telling us what is going to happen to him after lent is over he is going to give his life on the cross for us and raise on the third day. He tells us to be responsible and pick up our crosses so we can live with Him in heaven for eternity.
God says that He will be with us always. This means even through suffering, He is with us. He endures the pain that we endure, the scorn that we get, the embarrassment that we feel. Often we say who else is going through this? God is. He knows us, and He wants us to talk to Him, ask Him for things. He will not take problems away from us, He will only endure them with us. “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.” – Mother Teresa
Without God, we cant be holy. He died for us, saved us from sin, and opened the gates of Heaven for us but yet, we do things that can be against HIm. During Lent, we should give up more time than we normally give up and use that time to pray and praise God.
We must sacrifice to get closer to God. We need to give ourselves up for God. Monks are an example of giving up your life and living a life of prayer. Many Monks gave up their entire life just to be closer to God. We need to realize that if we give up our life up to God so we may grow closer to Him.
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” This phrase stuck out to me. To follow Jesus, He wants us to take up our cross. What does that mean? Jesus wants us to pick up our sufferings and go with Him. He will help us with them, He’ll guide us through.
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected” Suffering is not something special. Everybody goes through it in some way or another. We need to learn how to accept our sufferings and rejections as Jesus did so that we can focus on things that really matter.
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Jesus suffered more than any of us can even imagine. he did it for US. we need to start truly thanking him for what he has done for us.