We’re currently enjoy a weeklong arctic blast where temps are not going to rise out of the upper 20’s. In the overnight hours, we get sink down to single digits. Whenever you deal with frigid temps, you have to be careful of frozen pipes. The longer I live in Ohio, the more I learn about the need for prevention.
A meaningful reflection of Jesus happens as we pay the cost of prevention.
I have a confession…When it comes to maintenance of equipment, my frugal nature wants to wait until there is a problem instead of spending money in preventative maintenance. In my younger years, I would wait to see a dentist until I had pain. I would wait to take the car to the mechanic until I couldn’t drive it. As I get older, I am seeing more clearly the benefit of investing in preventative maintenance.
Last winter, when an arctic blast was coming, I wrapped my water spigots in a t-shirt to prevent them from freezing over. This year, I bought spigot covers.
Truth: There is a cost to following Jesus.
Salvation is an expensive gift offered to us for free. Choosing to accept the gift comes with a cost because the demand of following Jesus is to daily lay down our lives in surrender to His Lordship. The difference in the death Jesus died to give salvation and the death we die in receiving salvation is that our death is not physical. In death, Jesus bore the weight and penalty of our sin. In choosing salvation, we die to ourselves because we are choosing to follow Jesus as Lord.
Truth: Part of the cost of following Jesus is preventative.
Jesus desires righteousness from His followers. One aspect of righteous living is making decisions that help us stay out of bad situations. We can’t avoid all tempting situations, but we can help ourselves immensely by avoiding situations that will lead to sinful decisions.
To avoid these situations we may have to pay the cost of not going to the party, not watching the movie, or choosing to decline the drink.
There is a cost to prevention, but often times the cost of prevention is lower than the cost to repair. The cost of following Jesus is high, but it’s worth it, because the cost of not following Him is higher.
Keep Reflecting Jesus!