Fast Day 3 Devotion

This past summer, my youngest daughter was invited to participate in an Under 8 girls soccer team. This team was different than any other team she had been a part of until this point from the coaching to the competition, to the skill level of her teammates, and to the dedication of the parents. When I got the schedule for the games for the season, 2 things stuck out to me.  First, there would be practices 3 days a week and second, there would be multiple games out of the state that would cost a large amount of time and money. I immediately realized that I was not ready to be devoted to that amount of time and money.

The Oxford Dictionary defines devotion as “Love, loyalty, and enthusiasm for a cause, person, and activity”. In that sense, we all are currently devoted to something in our lives. The difficulty sometimes is realizing what we are truly devoted to. As followers of Christ, we are called to be devoted to Christ Himself, not His cause or any activity that He might be doing. Don’t get me wrong, those things are essential when following Him, however, they are not the main course.

When the disciples asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus answered in Luke 9: 59-62. He told them that if they followed Him, they might not have somewhere to lay their heads, or might not have the time to bury their loved ones or say goodbye to their family. In other words, to be devoted to Him means you might not get the comforts of this world, it means fighting the urge to have worldly relationships that mean more than our relationship and devotion to Him. We must beware of these things that rob us of our devotion to Him because the reward of being devoted to Him far outweighs the cost.