Coming to Christ involves change. For all of us it means forsaking and turning from our sins. And in each of our personal lives there are more specific items we must repudiate and turn away from. It may be some business practice or association. It could be some element of recreation or pleasure or hobby. It may be a habit that we must leave behind to follow Christ.
For each of us, the issue will be different, but I doubt very much that anyone could come to Christ without very quickly finding out that something has to go. Something has to be left behind.
Not everything that we must forsake is necessarily sinful, but when Christ calls, our priorities are shifted. How we spend our time, and what deserves our effort and energy will change.
There is a dangerous notion around today that there is no cost involved in following Christ. Some well-meaning souls paint a rosy picture of what it means to be a Christian. They portray a smooth, easy life, free from cares or effort. But the Christian life does involve some negative aspects, and one of the most important parts is a willingness to turn our backs on certain things in our lives that God may point out as being less than pleasing to Him, and things that may hold us back from serving Him.
But God doesn't ask us to give something up without the promise of replacing it with something much, much better.
What would His disciples have missed if they had been unwilling to leave their nets and their boats, or if they had turned back to their fishing! Oh, my friends, what blessings we miss when we slide back from our walk with Christ and get into the old patterns and the old habits.
May we commit ourselves to hold firm against the temptation to return to the old ways. Then we can claim the promise of Matt. 19:2929And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. (Matthew 19:29), that whoever forsakes houses, or family, or land for Jesus' sake, "shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."