Daily Devotional

Jesus did not sugar-coat discipleship. He strips it bare: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it.” (Luke 9:23). Jesus lays before us a choice to either follow him along the path of sacrifice which eventually leads to eternal life or to seek worldliness now and forfeit our souls eventually.

Why must we make efforts during this Lent to repent? Joel says, “He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in mercy and repents of evil.” Look around you; there is already enough evil and suffering in the world. Your decision to repent today goes a long way toward making the world a much better place. More still, you may also be averting punishment for your sins.

Since our temptations come from our insatiable desires, the best way to weaken their power over us is to create new desires. After fasting for forty days, Jesus was hungry, so hungry that he felt like misusing His divine powers. Jesus resisted because His desire for our salvation outweighed His desire for food. How deep is your desire for sainthood? Whatever you hope to achieve, you must desire it passionately. You cannot fight sin unless you truly hate the object of that sin. For instance, we lie to ourselves, saying, “I will stop doing this” Meanwhile, whenever we see it, we secretly crave it.