Do you feel you are a martyr, do you want to be a martyr?

Do you feel you are a martyr, do you want to be a martyr? 

Eileen Renders

Have you ever wondered whether you were brave enough, or courageous enough to give up your life to defend God? Most likely, very few will be put to that test. Therefore, how then do we show God our love and loyalty? How do we give God what He deserves, and wants from us?

Matthew 5:  In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus said; “You do not need to be a martyr to come to Me, but to die to the world.”

The First Commandment tells us; “I am the Lord thy god, and thou shalt not take strange gods before Me.” Jesus is telling us that although we must work, as did Jesus in the Carpentry Shop with His earthly father, St. Joseph, we must also work to feed our family and take care of our responsibilities. However, we are sinning when we focus our lives on obtaining money, more than we need, and have no time to focus on Christ as our priority. Money and status will not get us into heaven.

As Jesus once said; “I tell you the truth, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.

Contemplating what God has taught us, how then do we live our lives with the balance that we might enter into God’s Kingdom at the end of our lives? Give up world luxuries, if you are rich, share with the less fortunate. Spend time every day in prayer or meditation with God. Know that all that we have is from God, our energy, our intelligence, our stamina, and earth is a “testing ground” where we will be judged not for what we have, but how we used what we have been given.

Humility reminds us that we are nothing without God who created us, and live life always keeping in mind that life is temporary for all of us.