Jesus expects you to abandon your self-preservation instinct

During His ministry, Jesus had certain expectations for His disciples.  One of them was for them to abandon the self-preservation instinct.  "Abandoning one's instinct for self-preservation is a very persistent theme in the New Testament, repeated again and again," Jeremy Rose notes in one of his article on self-preservation.  

Rose highlighted the following verses to his defense:

·        "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

·        "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it" (Luke 9:24).

·        "Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it" (Luke 17:33).

·        "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matthew 10:39).

·        "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it" (Matthew 16:25).

·        "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the gospel will save it" (Mark 8:35).

·        "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life" (John 12:25).

Jesus expects us to abandon our self-preservation instincts and experience abundant life.  Self-preservation is an assurance of security, but necessary of abundance.  In finance, the people that expect a great return on their money very often choose the investments that have the greatest risk.  So it is in life; the people that expect a great return on their lives very often settle for the choices that have the greatest risk.