When Jesus commanded His disciples to count the cost of discipleship, He was effectively asking them to consider what their epitaph might be, what memorial words might be written on their gravestone. This is intended to be a short but precise description of a man’s life-not from the perspective of the man who died, but from the perspective of those who knew him best.
When his friends and family looked at his life, what sort of man did they see? This is a very important question that all disciples must ask themselves: How do I want Jesus to summarize my life?
If we continue to live in sin, hang out with the same people who tempt us, or maintain the same behaviors that lead us away from Christ, we are trying to walk in both the natural and the spiritual worlds. The apostle Paul reminds us:
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)
Personally, in the end, I want to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21); I want to know that I fulfilled the Father’s will in my lifetime. The epitaph that you want to have written about your life will reveal your deepest heart’s desires; it will define what your most important goals are in your life at present.
Taken from The Spiritual Mentor,by Jim Grassi