“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ”
(Philippians 3:7-8 ESV)

This question, “Are you willing to give up your life to know Christ Jesus as Lord?”, is at the root of any desire to follow after Jesus.  Are we talking about giving up your physical life?  Maybe.  Would you even consider it?  It may be easy for you to say “Yes!” here in your comfortable dwelling in the US, but what if God leads you to one of the hard places in the world (there are many!).  Would your trust in the Lord, and your desire to follow after Him, lead you there?

But beyond physical death, what other kinds of death are you willing to die for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord?  The odds that you will be martyred in a foreign country are low, but what about social martyrdom at school and with your friends?  Would you be able to say know to the world and yes to the gospel, even if it meant being shunned by those you hold dear?

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
(Luke 14:26 ESV)

According to Jesus, we must be willing to jettison all those things that we hold dear to us to follow Him.  Not for the sake of pain for pain’s sake, but so that we may gain something much greater!  Consider the rest of the passage from Luke 14:

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
(Luke 14:27-33 ESV)

This call to “count the cost” is not only to see are you willing to part with things that are important to your flesh, but also it is a call to consider dear that which is the BEST in or outside of the creation!  Jesus, Himself!

Are you willing to trade in your life for His?  To gain all that He has merited on the behalf of those whom He died, while shrugging off the worldly life that leads to death?

Pray that the Holy Spirit would give you that resolve that Christ would be glorified in your death!