Greetings everyone and welcome to today’s edition of …
Learn & Grow with Jesus Every Day
Today’s Topic is: The Cost of your Decisions
Date: Thursday, February 18, 2021
Bible Reading: Luke 14:28-33 NKJV
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the 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 to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
Discussion Question: Have you taken the time to sit down and count the cost of your next move?
Everything has a cost. Every choice we make, every intention we have, and every decision we take all have costs. In the world of economics, it is often said that every action has an opportunity cost. Simply, the opportunity cost is what (benefit or value) you must forgo in order to get something.
Everything takes time, effort, and resources to create, maintain, and sustain. This implies that everything has a price of a certain amount of time, effort, and resources to create, maintain and sustain. Literacy has a cost, and so does ignorance. Action has a cost, and so does inaction. Relationships have costs, and so do solitary living. Before we make any choice or take any decision towards any endeavor, we must first sit down and count the cost – to ensure that we have enough and are fully ready and prepared to commit whatever is necessary to finish successfully. Nothing can be more distressing and frustrating than to start or begin something and not be able to finish or complete it. The world is full of people with so many unfinished endeavors, broken dreams, and abandoned projects that have contributed to their frustration and disappointments in life.
Starting a new endeavor or undertaking is not easy, but having the patience, perseverance, resolve, and staying power to weather the storms and bring them to successful completion is even much harder. The athlete who sprints off at the beginning of a marathon race is seldom the one who finishes the course, much less winning the race. Rather, it is the athlete who through unshakable self-discipline, effective planning, and vigorous training learned how to endure the grueling race while maintaining a steady momentum that most often completes the course, and finishes the race.
Depending on the context, sitting down and counting cost may entail taking a deep introspection; acquiring more knowledge and learning about what you intend to undertake or embark on; identifying inherent challenges, risk factors, mitigations, and contingencies; articulating an effective plan to address scope, requirements, level of effort, milestones, deliverables, dependencies, budget overruns, and remedial actions; gathering the necessary capital, team and/or material resources, and finally executing with precision.
Jesus is teaching us today to take a disciplined approach to our relationships. We enter into some kind of relationship with any action, venture or endeavor we undertake, and every relationship has an opportunity cost. Our relationship with our jobs have opportunity cost. Our relationship with our finances have opportunity cost. Our relationship with our careers have opportunity cost, and so on. Even more so, our relationship with Jesus has opportunity cost. We must first sit down and consider all that we must forgo in order to be His disciples. Redemption and salvation are free, but discipleship has a cost. Following Jesus is the most important decision we will ever make. Therefore, it is of vital necessity that we carefully consider the commitment we are making.
Don’t start something you cannot finish. Most people start out their walk with Jesus in the word of God and prayer but do not continue in the word. Following Jesus is about being intentional every day. Dying to self every day and doing exactly those things that your flesh hates so much. Without the word of God in our lives, we are basically not His. Jesus said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15:7 KJV
We must also take the same disciplined approach to other issues of life such as our time, talents, and treasures. May God order our steps and help us count the true cost of every endeavor and decision of our lives.
The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. Ecclesiastes 7:8 NIV
Stay uplifted in Christ and live cheerfully everyday.
Leader Chinedu Nicholas Obodo for EXOLOM Fellowship, Maryland , USA. Find us at exolom.com
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