The wimp prefers a movie to a prayer meeting. He is awkward and nervous about prayer. To cover his wimpiness, he occasionally makes an effort to pray but his heart is not really in it. Do not even mention the word fasting to a wimp. It may put him in hospital with a heart attack. He would rather relax on an easy chair in front of the TV and munch popcorn.

It is easier for the wimp to sacrifice a church service than to miss a major league football game. Yet sacrifice is the foremost part of the true Christian’s creed. Jesus Christ, whom we call Lord, is the greatest example of sacrifice in the entire history of the world. Through His ultimate sacrifice at Calvary’s cross we are saved. The one hundred percent follower of Jesus Christ does not ask how little he must sacrifice to follow Him, but rather how much he can sacrifice to follow Him fully.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were an offering far too small,

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-26, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

There was not a trace, not a taint, not even the slightest smell of wimpiness about the Apostle Paul. He said in Philippians 3:7-8, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”

In his book, The Shadow of the Almighty (which everyone should read), Jim Elliott makes this statement:

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep

in order to gain what he cannot loose.”

Thomas Shepherd’s hymn says…

Must Jesus bare the cross alone,

And all the world go free?

No, there’s a cross for everyone,

And there’s a cross for me.

The consecrated cross I’ll bear,

Till death shall set me free,

And then go home my crown to wear

For there’s a crown for me.