Christians Want Comfort But Jesus Demands Self-Denial

We Christians like to be comfortable. In addition to physical comfort, we also want our relationships to be comfortable. Since we are obsessed with comfort, we are reluctant to do anything ministry related if it makes us uncomfortable. However, Paul used a word in the first sentence of Philemon that illustrates a very different mentality we should emulate. Notice the word prisoner. 

Philem. 1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved brother and fellow worker,

Paul was put in jail because of his ministry, but that didn’t stop him from doing ministry. Paul continued to follow Jesus no matter how severely uncomfortable it was. We should have Paul’s mindset because Jesus demands self-denial. 

Matt. 16:24-25 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

If we are serious about following Jesus Christ, we need to follow Paul’s example and serve Jesus even when it is very uncomfortable to do so.    “Scripture quotations taken from the NASB." [widgets_on_pages id="Follow"]