Daily Devotion: John 12

²³Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ²⁵The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

This is the key scripture that I always hear Ps Adrian share ever since I started out my journey in coming back as a believer, and then moving on to being a leader and after which serving actively in ministry. =D

Many time people ask me what drives me to serve at the capacity I am going in ministry? Is it the "lucrative rewards", prominent status or pride in leading large number of people?

Honestly, none of these are true. If these were true, I probably would have dropped out of God's work much earlier because of pride issues.

What keeps me going is knowing that the life that I live now (today)... however I choose to live it, it will have an impact and influence on the people around me. So I can choose to either leave a good, positive, lasting influence..... or be famous for all the yucky bad reasons.

I chose the former... and that's the hard part. Because with that choice, it literally means I have to 'die' daily. Die to some of my desires and dreams. Die to my conveniences. Sacrifice seems to always to be greater in the equation.

Each time I come to a crossroad of challenging decisions, this first pops up and I ask myself, "How else can I 'die' such that people can have life and be blessed in what I decide?"

Application:

1. What are some things we have to sacrifice or 'die' to in order that we may have life? Example: Sacrifice watching our favorite TV show to do Quiet Time.

2. What are some things we have to sacrifice or 'die' to in order OTHERS may have life? Example: Going down the extra mile to help a fellow brother/sister which may inconvenient our pre-arranged schedule.

3. When we struggle to 'die', think about it. Is it because we can't do it? Or we don't want to do it? Take some time to reflect and see if are there any selfish thoughts we are holding?