Have you ever met a “stage Mother” or a “cheerleader Mother?”

Did it feel a bit awkward?

Do you tell her the truth or lie a little?

“What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered.”- Matthew 20:21-22

Another title for this could easily be careful what you ask for and be double cautious what you push your kids into. This woman comes to Jesus and ask Him to make sure her boys are sitting on the left and the right of Him in His kingdom.

What did Jesus say?

“No problem Mam here are two express tickets one to my right side and one to my left.”

If you answered how crazy is that you are right on track! For starters Jesus asked them if they were ready to suffer along with Him. He had just predicted His own death a third time so if anyone was surprised about the agony Christ was going to go through (and many were) they were not really listening.

If we listen I think Christ would say the same today as He did back then. Yes He paid the debt, Yes we are no longer under the law and slaves to sin but Yes it is still not easy to follow Him. “Deny yourself”- or kill the ego, “Be a servant”- serve others and Love all, “Take up your cross daily”- make a daily decision that Love and sacrifice for others will be a way of life. Keep in mind that up to this point Jesus had not been killed and brutally beaten and publicly humiliated for you and me. Up to this point it was all about feeding the five thousand and doing miracles and having people see you with Jesus.

My point is this while Jesus reconciles you with God and while once “in Christ” we are no longer “under the law” and the “easy burden and light yoke” of not being under the law becomes reality once you accept Christ- while all this is the case the road is still there and lessons still need to be learned. Perfect lovers are not born they are made one bump in the road at a time and that road and to “drink that cup” is an awesome adventure but it is not always easy especially if your eyes are not on the right thing.

To die to self means saying, “I may be wrong- God teach me to Love” “God open my eyes on growth that needs to happen in me” and trust me He will. Like being stuck in Seoul traffic and getting upset with some idiot driver only to have God remind me- “Bob who am I, I will get you to the place I want you at the exact moment I want you there and not a second before and oh by the way I control the traffic and all the idiots in it including you.”

Here is a meditation for you. Find a time and a place where you wont be disturbed or hopefully wont but if you are that is part of His plan for you so roll with it, and close your eyes. Take a couple of deep breaths in and out through the nose and relax. Now get a picture of a time when you were stressed and see that seen in your mind while you:

Breathe in and say:

“Abba is”

Breathe out and say:

“In Ccontrol”

Once you open your eyes live in the awareness that He is doing a work in you with each and every event and moment in your life and Dont worry Be Grace-Full!

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