Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Sacrifice

Going along with my recent post, I think it’s important to think about what exactly we are willing to die for. It’s easy to tell where your true priorities lie when you honestly ask yourself that.

I’ve taken an oath saying I will give my life for my country if necessary. That is something that is not to be taken lightly. This can vary greatly than giving your life for God, as America isn’t perfect and in many ways, very un-godly. As I’ve said in the last post, I look upon this promise not so much as giving my life so that people can do whatever they want, but instead that they would find the truth. If I should die in the military, I prefer to see it as dying for God, so that he may save more souls.

We also must ask ourselves who individually we are willing to die for. In Father Larry Richard’s talk about loving more, he said that when we tell someone we love them, we are saying that we are willing to die for them. Again, it is not to be taken lightly. Jesus says “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Look at how he was willing to die for us. If God willed it, could I do the same?

And lastly, am I willing to die for God? This should be the easiest but, in practice, may be the hardest. Am I willing to die as the seven brothers and their mother did in 2 Maccabees 7?

I understand why some saints prayed to be martyred. It was the most important thing to them and they wanted to prove that. In a way, I wish to be martyred. But I think all Christians are martyred in some way, weather that would be suffering your whole life (in many possible ways), dying to self (witch is talked about all the time) or actual martyrdom. It’s all giving your life to God, which is what he asks us to do. So, are you willing to die for God?

1 comment:

  1. This is an interesting post. I think the hardest kind of dying is the type we do every day, as we keep dying and dying again to our selfish desires.

    In some ways I think being martyred may be easy. But, choosing to let the imperfect in ourselves die, and enduring a sort of death now and often while still alive is very difficult.

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