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This Sunday, our message was on passionately committing from Christ, coming from Luke 9:23-26. Today, Pastor Dre gives identifies specific areas that will help us passionately commit to Christ. The text says, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. This language was not suggestive or simply something to be remembered; it was to be obeyed.

The first area is a persistent prayer life. If we’re going to be passionately committed to Christ and increase our fruit, we have to increase our power. It’s like how we used to say in the missionary baptist church: “No prayer, no power; little prayer, little power; much prayer, much power.” If we want to increase our fruitfulness and effectiveness as followers of Christ, we must increase our prayer life. This is part of our daily self-denial; taking up our cross and following Jesus.

Furthermore, if we really want to follow him, self-interests cannot dominate the life of a believer. So often in our culture, self-interests are promoted, but the text shows Jesus insisting that these things be purged, and we do this through persistent prayer. James 1:5 states that if we’re lacking wisdom, we must ask for it, and God will give it to us. This too is accomplished through prayer.

Finally, we must engage in worship; not just with our lips, but with our actions and attitudes. We all have habits. Many of us have a bad habit of getting on our phone right after waking up; going through emails, social media, and so on. What we’re trying to build are habits that will make us more effective and fruitful as followers of Jesus. Pastor Pervis Hall once said, “All trees produce fruit.” Just because the tree is producing fruit doesn’t mean it’s good fruit. As effective followers, we want to produce good fruit! When we go to the grocery store, we don’t want to buy bad fruit, so we examine it to make sure we’re buying the best. This is exactly what we’re doing by looking at our spiritual habits. We all want to practice persistence in our prayer lives and our worship of Jesus.

Family, how are you doing in these areas? Are there any ways you could create better habits in your prayer life or worship? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to grow with you.