“Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding-because the one who suffers in his flesh is finished with sin.” 1 Peter 4:1

Lord Jesus, The life you call me to live as I follow you is hardly easy. You call me to take up my cross to follow you. You tell me to deny myself as I come after you. You tell me to daily put to death everything in me that wages war against the good you want me to do. You call me to come and die. You call me to come and die to the sinful desire that live inside me. You give me power to kill those sinful desires in the waters of my baptism. Yes, you give me the powerful waters of my baptism where I drown all those desires. You call me to come and die to putting myself first. You call me to come and die so that you are first and everyone else is second in my life. Lord Jesus, give me the same attitude that you had when you came to this earth-you came to die. Lord Jesus, you call me to the same as I follow you. Grant me power by my baptism so that I might die to sin and so live for you. Amen.

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer