YOLO! LIVE IT RIGHT! - Matthew 16 Blog
Have plenty of down time on the set of ‘Days of Our Lives’ today and I can’t think of a better thing to do then to spend some good Time Alone With God (TAWG). Today I read in Matthew 16 and the section of scripture that stood out to me the most was, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26 NIV).
For some reason, when I read that section of scripture the term YOLO (You Only Live Once) comes to mind. My first thought with that YOLO term is people that use that term as a way to say that you should really live up life while you have it and enjoy tons of drunken parties, random sex, and seek to fulfill all of the desires of the flesh in general while you are alive. In this section of scripture, however, Jesus is saying to “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” This means that we need to deny those sinful desires of the flesh and instead follow Jesus and seek Him out to fulfill the desires of our Spiritual being. Reality is, the desires of the flesh are only temporary satisfaction, but seeking the desires of the Spirit are eternal satisfaction.
The Lord is also saying, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” We can spend this short life here on Earth trying to become rich and “store up treasures on earth”. Furthermore, we can focus on doing all we can to be famous/popular by saying and doing all of the so called ‘cool things’. We can chase after everything that this world has to offer, but chasing after the things of this world will only cause us to ultimately forfeit our own souls in the process as those things can ultimately become idols.
Now to take a look at YOLO in a new way. You Only Live Once, so use this time to focus on growing closer to Jesus through time in prayer, worship, and reading His Word. Use this short life on Earth to share Jesus with others in order to impact them for Eternity. One main thing that we can do while we are here on Earth that we can’t do when we are in Heaven is lead souls to Christ... that is what I consider “storing up treasures in Heaven”. YOLO, so speak the name of Jesus often, and focus on storing up your treasures in Heaven where they have eternal value, rather than here on Earth where they will rot away. Reality is, the best of our life comes when we are in Heaven with Jesus.
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