A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to attend a concert that I thought sounded interesting but would have conflicted with other plans. On the other hand, I completely changed my initial plans for a week of travel, spent a few hundred dollars, and took my first trip on a Greyhound bus in a few decades in order to spend time with a dear friend whom I had not seen in far too long.

Those two choices got me thinking about priorities and how we make decisions about how to spend our time and money. There are a lot of things that I want to do, or at least say that I want to do. However, some I will only do if they require little time and effort and don’t really disrupt my life. For others, I will go to great effort and completely rearrange my life. 

God knows this about us, and he expects us to desire him in such a way that we will rearrange our lives as a result of knowing him.

Some may say, “Wait a minute! Salvation is a free gift of God. What are you talking about?”

It is true that salvation is a gift that we cannot earn. Paul clearly states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV). However, focusing too much on those two verses may lead us to ignore the next one: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV).

The reality is that when Jesus called people to follow him, he asked a great deal of them. “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’” (Luke 9:23 ESV).

In another passage, Jesus makes an even stronger statement, and calls upon those following him to count the cost of a commitment to him.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-33 ESV)

So, that leaves us needing to ask how: much we want Jesus and salvation? Are we willing to offer all that we are and all that we have to follow Christ? This passage calls for the sacrifice of our closest relationships, our own lives, and all that we have. 

I think most who claim to follow Jesus would say that they are willing to sacrifice everything, but I also think most of us still struggle to live this out in practice. Are we willing to spend time in prayer? What about Bible reading or study? What about Christian fellowship? Are we willing to spend our money? Do we tithe? Do we do more than tithe if called by God to do so? Are we willing to give sacrificially to others in need? Are we willing to cultivate relationships that will allow us to share Christ with others? Have we been called out of our current homes and jobs into some other place of service, and are we willing to go?

The only meaningful answer to these questions is to look at our lives and how we actually spend our lives. Do we really want Christ? Do we really want to follow God and become Christlike so much that our desire for God is rearranging our lives?