{"id":479,"date":"2026-10-25T18:14:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/?p=479"},"modified":"2026-10-25T18:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:14:31","slug":"what-do-you-desire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/25\/what-do-you-desire\/","title":{"rendered":"What do You Desire?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ponder: What do you want more than anything else?<\/span><\/p>\n

Scripture: \u201cIf anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me\u201d (Matthew 16:24, NKJV).<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus left the glory of Heaven and came to this earth for a purpose: to give Himself as the supreme atonement offering. He had just told His disciples of His impending suffering and death when Peter rebuked Him, insisting that this would never happen. Despite Peter\u2019s good intentions, Jesus called him Satan (adversary) because he was hindering Jesus from accomplishing His purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

At that point, our Lord made Himself crystal clear: following Him would be no easy life! Jesus was on His way to death, \u201ceven the death of the cross\u201d (Phil. 2:8). Anyone wanting to be His disciple would have to deny himself and take up his own cross. Does that sound pleasant?<\/span><\/p>\n

The very next verse poses what most people want, namely to save their lives rather than deny themselves and take up their own crosses. \u201cFor whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it\u201d (Matthew 17:25). Say \u201cno\u201d to my own desires and bear my cross? Be faithful unto death? No, thanks! I prefer to save my life. But if that\u2019s the course I take, I can\u2019t be His disciple, and I will end up losing my life eternally.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, it comes down to this: What do we really want? Have we counted the cost of following Jesus? There are no shortcuts or waivers. Are you in or out?<\/span><\/p>\n

Hymn: \u201cI Have Decided to Follow Jesus\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer: Father, we thank You for Him who took up His cross and went to Calvary to pay the price for our sins. Help us, we pray, not to shirk our own duty to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. In Jesus\u2019 name, Amen.<\/span><\/p>\n

–Joe Slater<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ponder: What do you want more than anything else? Scripture: \u201cIf anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me\u201d (Matthew 16:24, NKJV). Jesus left the glory of Heaven and came to this earth for a…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading… What do You Desire?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":480,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}