August 19, 2010 by Mark Batterson 0 comments

Posted in: Weekly Devotionals

I think many people make a fundamental mistake in the way they view their relationship with God. They view it in win/lose terms. They see it as a zero-sum game. They focus on what they have to give up and fail to realize how much more they get back. A relationship with God is the ultimate win/win relationship.

Let me go out on a theological limb; I don't think there is any such thing as sacrifice when you're a follower of Christ.

Sure, we are called to "deny ourselves" and "take up our cross." We're called to "lose our lives so that we can find them." And we certainly experience temporary loss. But I don't think anyone has ever sacrificed anything for God. Why? Because we always get back more than we give up. And if you get back more than you gave up, have you really sacrificed anything at all?

On December 4, 1857, the famous missionary David Livingstone gave a speech at Cambridge University.

People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa... Away with the word in such a view and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger now and then with a forgoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.

You've never sacrificed anything for God. But let me push the envelope even further: If you were to always act in your greatest self-interest, you would always obey God. That is what I mean by a win/win relationship.

"I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."

There is an old aphorism: "No one ever bet too much on a winning horse." I know this for sure: The only regrets we'll have at the end of our lives will be that we didn't seek God more or seek God sooner. That's it.

Adapted from "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" by Mark Batterson