Is there sacrificial evidence in my life that I love Jesus more than myself and my family?  

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

INSIGHT:  Jesus is not asking us to literally hate our family in this passage, any more than He is literally asking us to gouge out our eye in Mat 5:29. He is using hyperbole, as He often does, to stress or exaggerate a very important point.  Hate, in this context, means to love less, and to obey second.  Jesus makes it very clear that we must not follow anyone else’s commands or expectations of us before His.  We must love our lives and families less than we do Him.  He is the King of Kings, not our friends or family members.  But, this can only be proven to the Lord by painful sacrifice, hence why Jesus asks us to count the cost, not our blessings. He created us for Him, and we owe our entire existence and full allegiance to Him, even when it causes pain for, or conflict with, others that we love. (This excludes young children who are to submit to the authority of parents, except if asked to do evil.)

When you fully surrender your life and will to Jesus, (which is the only way to make peace with Him before He comes back to make war v. 32), He will likely ask you to obey Him in ways that will cause suffering to those whom you love.  When my first spouse left me, God asked me to turn the other cheek, fire my divorce attorney, and to trust Him alone for my defense. 

Because my children and financial future were at risk, my parents and friends begged me to use the brain and reasoning skills that God gave me (Pro 3:5-6).  My mother persecuted me relentlessly for my foolish faith, putting great pressure on me to obey her, rather than God.  Because her natural man could not receive the things of the Spirit of God (1Cor 2:14), she became desperate, accusing me of having a mental illness, and later asking if I had a “dark” spirit directing me, rather than God.  When nothing stopped me from obeying God, they said they were going to take me to the prison, so I could see where I was going to end up as a jailhouse minister.  All this pressure was used to severely test and increase the strength of my faith and my love for God.

Obeying Jesus like this, proves to God and yourself, that you love Him more than your family or your own life.  It shows you will not withhold from Him those you love the most, and proves that He can trust you, in His service, with spiritual power and treasure, without fear of you being compromised.  Those who have been given a trust must prove faithful (1 Cor 4:2).  

God blessed my costly obedience with that amazing 777-day miracle in the divorce. Had I loved my family more than Him, or had I taken their “wise counsel”, to keep peace with them, not only would God have been so displeased with me, but there would be no story called “Trusting God in the Storm”, seen by 1.7 million people around the world, bringing more than 12 million video views to my YouTube channel (before I stopped posting teachings on it in Jan 2023)  That story resulted in tens of thousands reaching out to me from all over the world (like my beloved wife Lisa from NZ), some on the verge of suicide or at the end of their rope with God, who then found blessing and spiritual life from God, through that tragic story.  Only He knows the full cost, even beyond the loss of my own salvation, had I not trusted Him enough to “hate” my family and friends through that divorce, or any of the other difficult things He has asked me to do since.

Beyond the loss of your own soul when King Jesus comes back to make war (with those who have ignored His terms of peace), what might the future cost be to the Kingdom of God, if you are not willing to “hate” your family, your friends, yes, even your own life, in order to love and obey Jesus Christ more?