Sacrifice

As you read this devotion, I ask that you would take time to read and meditate on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Luke 23:26-46 for the crucifixion and Luke 24:1-12 for the resurrection) Imagine that you have a belt test in a week and you need to start training in order to have a chance to pass it. However, throughout the week, your friends want you to hang out with them during your training time. Then, your favorite show is on Netflix and you decide to watch 2 seasons in one sitting. Finally, as you start your training, you decide that you are “good enough” to pass the test and decide to take the day off. How do you think you will do? Personally, I would not have a chance of passing or showing my true potential in the martial arts. Things that I “wanted” to do trumped the things that I “needed” to do. As martial artists, we need to think about the things we can sacrifice so we can better ourselves. It is hard to sacrifice, but I always ask myself this: if I chose not to train, what am I missing? These sacrifices can help us improve not only our ability in the martial arts, but it teaches us how to be humble and how to get where we need to be. We are able to better ourselves when we make sacrifices. Yet, it is hard to make sacrifices. I know that there are some days that I really want to skip class so I can lay in bed and not do anything productive. Even outside of the martial arts, sometimes it is hard to make sacrifices. In addition to what I said above, I also ask myself this question: if I choose not to sacrifice things, then what would happen if Christ chose not to sacrifice many things for us? Think about it, we are all sinful and have no hope to receive everlasting life by our own means. We need Christ to build that bridge between us and God. But, what if Christ went to the cross and said, “I don’t want to go on the cross. I’ll just make a miracle to get away.” The law wouldn’t be fulfilled and we would all face damnation. Praise God that this wasn’t the case. Luke does a great job explaining the crucifixion and the resurrection. Not only did Christ sacrifice his dignity, his pride, his honor, and most importantly his life to better himself, He did it because he wanted to better all of us. He died to cleanse us from sin by defeating the devil and rising from the dead. Thank you, Jesus, for the greatest sacrifice.