Counting the Cost of Following Jesus

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Ruth 1:11 “And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?”

Arrrggghh Naomi! Why didn’t you just tell your daughters-in-law that going back to the Promised Land and to the God of Israel will make all their problems go away and everything will be fine? Isn’t that what many are saying about those who are interested in coming to the Lord? Doesn’t it go something like “God loves you and wants to bless you. Ask Him into your life and He will take away all your problems!” Isn’t that what it means to share the gospel? Not likely! What Naomi did was tell them the truth that following the Lord means carrying our cross and counting the cost of having the Lord God of Israel as their God.

Our Lord Jesus expects nothing less. I always get amazed by our Lord’s reactions when people were willing to follow Him. We would think “Sweet, someone wants to follow the Lord” but the Lord Jesus would rather they count the cost first. In Luke 14:25-29, it says that great multitudes were going along with Him. So He turns and says unto 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 carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him…”

We shouldn’t give people a wishy-washy gospel unless we are trying to produce wishy-washy Christians. Jesus didn’t but asked them to weigh up their motive and commitment in following Him.