Last night I listened to another Paul Washer sermon, "Pray And Be Alone With God." Washer made a statement that really made me think hard. Here it is:
The most dangerous prayer you could pray:
Praying to be like Jesus Christ is practically calling a death sentence upon yourself.
What did He mean by that? At first I was a little bothered because isn't that what we're supposed to pray? And isn't that what sanctification is all about? And isn't it what I've been praying?
Then as I thought about that last part, how it is what I have been praying, I really began to understand what Paul Washer meant by death sentence.
I think when we pray that God will make us more like His Son, sometimes we forget what this entails. We are praying for and expecting the outcome of being like Christ yet not necessarily for the means of what it will cost us to become like Him.
Calling a death sentence upon yourself...
"...If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Luke 9:23
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20
God did not spare His Son suffering and death. He surely will not spare us whatever it takes to make us more like His Son. If we really truly genuinely want to be more like Christ, and that is our prayer, we can't be expecting a life of comfort and ease.
We must die. Die to self. Death is the way to life.
"For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His." Romans 6:5
"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it." Mark 8:35
And let's not forget this verse...
"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death." Philippians 3:10
A much-needed reminder.
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