Counting the Cost

It is always good to count the cost before we go into anything that will require our commitment. But it will never fully prepare us for what we will need to pay. This is where knowledge comes up wanting, to faith.

Faith does more than count, it believes in the One who understood what payment means. He understands what it takes to endure to the end.

People will ask us our opinion on whether they should precede in what looks like a costly adventure. Not money wise, but in dealing with people with needs. It is something you just can not answer for others.

 Alan shared the following to me in an email, and I wanted to remember it, to log it in my heart... “We did not learn that lesson from others telling us- we went to class ourselves and learned the lessons hands on. People with a heart to give, will receive the blessing in their giving and lessons in their grieving. Sometimes we can anticipate the pain that others will certainly be experiencing and we attempt to intervene. However, pain has been a wonderful tool in our Father's hand. We have learned much from what we have suffered most. Without having heard from God directly, this is all we can offer – our opinion. It may come from experience and it may accurately predict the outcome of events, but our opinions will not build faith in others.”

We can only "count the cost" for ourselves.  And those who understand His great love, pay it with JOY. 

Often times God demonstrates His faithfulness in adversity by providing for us what we need to survive. He does not change our painful circumstances. He sustains us through them. ~Charles Stanley

More than once Jesus deliberately addressed certain issues that quickly diminished the number of onlookers...it was commitment that thinned the ranks.
~Charles (Chuck) Swindoll

Pain is the pen that writes the songs, and  they call us forth to dance.

~Michael Card