We'll never be able to say it enough, but thank you for praying over the ministry opportunities that God gives Try Dying. This past weekend, we were at this school in Mt. Laurel Birmingham that looks a lot like a castle where Double Oak Community Church meets. Our great friend and old roommate, David Cagle, has recently come on as Double Oak's youth pastor and we were privileged to meet the students that Cagle has been and will be investing his life in.

During every camp or retreat setting, we begin the week or weekend by sharing the Gospel. God gloriously saved several students the first night - Hallelujah!

The second night, though, I want to spend the rest of the time writing about. I believe, if you know Jesus for real, there will come several moments in your life when your want and His will collide. Often, that which Jesus asks us to give up is not even necessarily bad - it's just not the best.

In our experience, believers have bought into the lie that was sprung on humanity all the way back in the Garden of Eden. Satan, disguised as a serpent, approached Eve with a two-fold strategy. He said to her, "Did God really say..." He attacked her trust in God with this suggestion, and once she had bought into the lie that was being offered, she was in a position of extreme danger. "You shall not surely die," he said to her, "for God knows that if you eat of the fruit from the tree, you will be like God knowing good and evil."

You see - Eve had two legitimate needs: food and to be like God. But when she believed the enemy's lie that God was no longer worthy to be trusted, it fell to her to meet those needs. Look carefully - "If you eat...you will be like God."

In our lives, we have tons of legitimate needs: relationships, careers, food, shelter, money, etc. Someone is going to meet your needs - God wants to. In fact, His plan includes all of these things and more.

Jeremiah 29:11 is a familiar verse worth reflecting on: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 

There is only one logical reason that a believer would choose to live life his or her own way - they no longer believe that God can be trusted. Once this lie is believed, you will seek to meet your needs with your own plan instead of yielding to God. How can you not? Remember - you believe that He is no longer worthy to be trusted.

Every attack that Satan renders against us deals with our minds - attacking our belief in the character of God which in turn, leads us into making our own plans to be like God. Living life our way.

Why would you ever yield to the Lord in total surrender? Why should you let Him write your love story? Why should you let Him choose what school you should go to? I mean, you've waited all this time, and it seems like He's not going to answer. There's a deadline to meet! You've got to hurry up and make a choice!

In the life of every believer, God consistently brings you to a crossroads where your want and His will collide. Your tangible, well-thought out plan vs. His amazing, supernatural, often unseen plan. This is the place where following Christ really becomes real. It's in this place that three things will be seen in your life: 1) Whether or not you are truly following Jesus as opposed to just having Him as a part of your life (Mark 8:24); 2) Whether or not you believe Jesus when He tells you that He has a wonderful plan for you (behavior ALWAYS reflects belief); 3) To demonstrate that you love Him.

If you really want to know how much you love Him. If you need a barometer for your passion - look no further than the last time that your want collided with His will. What did you do? That's how much you love Him. It's easy to sing the songs at the worship service. It's even easy to go to the altar and cry a little bit. It's even relatively easy to go talk it over with a godly person and seek counsel. But it's difficult to die to yourself. Ironically, though, it's at the place of death/reckless abandon to Christ that you find life to the full (Galatians 2:20).

Undoubtedly, God will supernaturally allow many of you to read this in the midst of just such a decision. A crossroads of your will and His. Understand this - He is good. He loves you. He is worthy of your trust. Yes, He sometimes delay. Yes - many times He's on a different timetable. Yes - dying to yourself is difficult. But He is good. And He loves you.

Hebrews 11:13-16 says "13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

What you will find when you finally decide that you really believe this...what you will finally understand when you choose the extraordinary life with Jesus over the cheap imitation that you can make for yourself...is that the journey was never even about all the cool things you get to see, and all the awesome places you get to go, and how blessed you'll be. You'll find that it was all about Him. A God who is so incredible and Great and Powerful that cares enough about you to adopt you, to love you, and invite you to be a part of His life. (Revelation 3:20).

Have you not eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil long enough? Won't you dine with Him?

-Try Dying