BECOMING YOUR BEST SELF

“Committing To Your Commitments”
Luke 9:23 [NLT]
Then He said to the crowd, “if any of you wants to be my followers, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily and follow me…”

 How often have you committed to something, but didn’t really put your entire being into following through on that commitment?

 How often have you said you were going to do something, and then just dropped it because you were too busy or didn’t have the energy to continue with it?

 How many times have you said you were going to change your habits…and then didn’t stick to it?
• How many times have you said you were going to take a course, read a book, take on a challenge, start a new hobby, write a book, open a business…and then you barely even start on it (if you start at all)?
For many people listening to me right now, this all happens at an alarming rate. There are people who make commitments that aren’t even half commitments; they are more like “quarter commitments.”
However, the question tonight is, what if we could deepen our commitments? What would it be like to be so deeply committed, we’d be unshakable? What would it be like to be the person who would walk through walls to meet their purpose in life? How much better would the quality of our life be if we were fully committed to every thing we committed to?
• In the text, Jesus emphatically declared following Him required a full commitment.
How Can We Be More Committed?

1. TAKE AWAY CHOICE. In the text please note, Jesus only gave His listeners one option, He said, “If any of you wants to be MY follower.” Following Him (becoming a disciple) was the only option. When we’re only half committed, it’s primarily because the door is open for other options. We think, “Sure, I’m going to commit to do this, that or the other, but…but in the back of our minds we’re thinking if that doesn’t work out, I have other options.” However, if we’re going to commit, let’s remove all possibility in our minds of doing anything else. There’s just this one option: doing your commitment.
 EX. THE CALLING OF ELISHA – [READ I KINGS 19:19-21]

 Please note – The burning of the plow and eating of the oxen spoke of a total commitment!

2. GIVE YOUR COMMITMENT 100%. In the text Jesus said, “You must give up your own way.” Another way of saying that is, “you must be all in.” Going through the motions doesn’t count. If you’re going to do it, do it with your entire being. Show up fully. Put your whole heart into it. Or don’t do it at all. Only half showing up for other people is painful to them. The same with only showing up halfway for yourself.
 COL.3:23 [Amplified Bible] – “Whatever you do [whatever your task may be], work from the soul [that is, put in your very best effort], as [something done] for the Lord and not for men.”

3. REMEMBER YOUR DEEPER WHY. In the text Jesus said, “Take Up your cross daily and follow me.” If a person is not taking their commitments seriously, it’s probably because they’ve forgotten the why, why they committed to it in the first place. Why was it so important to start with?
When you forget “the why”, the commitment issue then becomes just another thing on your endless to do list! Instead, remember the deeper reason you committed to this — maybe it’s to serve people you care deeply about. Keep them in your heart and make this commitment the most important thing in the world, at least now you’re doing it. Write out why you care so much about this commitment and put that somewhere you can’t miss it.
 CR. THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS [READ REVELATIONS 2:1-6]

4. ADD COMMITMENTS SLOWLY. Let’s face it: we want to do everything. And yet, this is why we can’t uphold our commitments — we’re overcommitting! Most of us should reduce our commitments (I’ll talk about that next), but once we get to a place where we feel we can add a new commitment…we should be very deliberate about the process of adding a new commitment. We should process/meditate on it for a few days. Commit to it only for a week or two, so that you can see if you have room in your life. Once you feel good about it, add that commitment…but then don’t add others for a little while, until you’re sure you can add another.
 CR. - JESUS’ RESPONSE WHEN LAZARUS DIED [READ JOHN 11:1-6]
5. GET OUT OF COMMITMENTS YOU AREN’T GOING TO UPHOLD. Most of us are overcommitted — which means we can’t possibly meet all our commitments. In this case, we should first see if there’s a way, we can meet some of those commitments for as long as we said we would (work on a project for a month, for example), but then get out of them once we’ve fulfilled that commitment. That should be our first choice — do what we said we would, but then end it when we can. Next choice is to renegotiate the commitment if necessary — maybe we said we could do it for a year, but we can only do it for the next few months. Maybe we said we could do it every day, but all we’re able to do is three days a week. Let the person know and apologize to them. Lastly, GET OUT OF THE COMMITMENT IF YOU CAN’T DO EITHER OF THE ABOVE. Again, apologize, but recognize that this is necessary if you’re going to fully meet your more important commitments. So, this is a matter of prioritizing which ones you need to meet. But if you must get out of a commitment, let that be a grave lesson in overcommitting yourself.