To die and live for Christ

"Though you are mourning and grieving with us,
Death died a long time ago.
Swallowed in life so that life carries on.
Still it's so hard to let go..."

This song really encouraged me. It was written after a girl named Cassie Bernall was shot and died because she professed to believe in God. In essence, she DIED for God.

I wonder how many Christians would be willing to die for Christ. But still more than that, I wonder how many Christians are willing to LIVE for Christ. Think about it. Most people who know themselves to be Christians and truly love the Lord would probably die for Him. But often, it's the small, day to day things when we refuse to obey God or stubbornly decide to listen to the world instead of Him, when we don't truly live for Him. And if we don't live for Him, what good is it to die for Him? If we were to die because we profess that we loved Him, yet we were not willing to surrender our lives on earth to Him, what good is it?
I'm not saying that it's not important to be willing to die for Christ. After all, He died for us and we should love Him just as He loved us first. But so often we're consumed with doing the "big things" for God (such as being willing to die for Him) and we forget that we must LIVE for Him as well.

Let us remember the Apostle Paul's words, "More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ"
I pray that I would consider everything a loss compared to the SURPASSING VALUE of knowing Christ.
To live for Him is just as important as to die for Him.