Verse of the Day for August 28

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost? The first act of the builder is not digging. It is sitting down.

Jesus says this to large crowds following him, many of them excited by miracles. Just before, he has said that whoever does not bear his cross cannot be his disciple. He is not trying to thin the crowd for its own sake. He is asking them to sit down and think.

Counting the cost is not a lack of faith. It is honesty. Following Jesus may cost you a friendship, a promotion, the approval of your family, comfort, money. Pretending otherwise sets people up for the shame of verse 29, a foundation laid and nothing more, while all that behold it begin to mock him.

Yet the tone is not grim. A builder who sits down to count does so because he wants the tower. The cost is real because the thing is worth building.

Find a quiet chair this evening. Write down honestly what following Jesus is costing you right now, or may cost you soon. Do not hide it from him. Then tell him again that you want to finish. He knows the sum, and he does not ask you to pay it alone.

Faith that has sat down and counted is stronger than faith that never looked.

The cost is real because the tower matters.