For many of us, some things are worth taking the risk. It's worth buying this car even if it means eating outside less for a few years. It's worth working ten hours a day so that I could save up for my spouse's dream business. It's worth letting go of my hobbies so that I could give more time to charity work. Yes, we deem it worth the trade.
Of all the things we must consider worth letting go of everything for, however, it should be God. There's nothing more precious, nothing more beautiful, nothing more desirable than God (see Matthew 13:44-46).
Yet despite His immense worth, many of us fear taking risks to serve Him, honor Him, and please Him. We fear offending a few friends by sharing the Gospel to them. We fear being left out when we say "no" to drinking parties. We fear walking alone when we decide to travel the road less traveled – the narrow road that leads to life.
Dear reader, I would like to encourage you to take the risk and pursue God. Right at the onset, we have been told that following Christ means being willing to deny ourselves:
"Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."" (Matthew 16:24-25 MEV)
Denying ourselves to follow Him is truly worth it. Losing our lives for our sake – trading in earthly, temporal, and selfish pursuits – in order to effectively pursue Him will always be a risk that is more than just worth taking; It's the right way to live.
To encourage you to take risks, let's look at three personas in the Bible who risked themselves and are honored for it.
1) Esther
Queen Esther, the wife of King Ahasuerus, risked herself in order to preserve the Jews living in Babylon during her time. At that time, a vicious plot intended to eradicate the Jews was hatched, and Esther was the only one in position to ask the king to stop it.
Esther, who was put in her place "for such a time as this" (see Esther 4:14), asked every Jew to fast with her for three days, then entered the king's court without any invitation. Doing that is dangerous: any person who is not invited to the king's presence is killed unless he intervenes. Thankfully, the king's favor fell on her, and eventually she was able to turn the tides, freeing the Jews. (see Esther 5, 7-9)
2) Nehemiah
Nehemiah, a Jewish cup-bearer to King Artaxerxes, led a group of Jews to repair the broken walls of Jerusalem. Such was the danger they faced while repairing the wall that he needed to divide the workers into two batches (one working at daytime and the other at night time), with each taking turns working and guarding. Each worker also held a weapon in one hand while working with the other (see Nehemiah 4).
Nehemiah received threats and his enemies even tried to kill him, but his courageous act of risking himself to rebuild the wall paid off well.
3) Zacchaeus
Zacchaeus, a tax collector, wanted to turn his back on sinning so that he could follow Jesus (see Luke 19:1-10). Desiring to meet the Savior as He passed by, he went up a thorny tree to call His attention. Later, he told Jesus that he would give half of his possessions to the poor, and repay those he has cheated up to four times more. He may have let go of his material riches in repentance, but nevertheless the result is wonderful:
"Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."" (Luke 19:9-10)
