“But Jesus told him, ‘Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.’”
  
All good sales people know that they must know and recognize, and then be able to respond to, the answers they receive that are the beginning of a deal slipping away from them.  But the rest of us try and close deals everyday with our teams, partners, investors, employees and yes, even with our bosses without the same experience or skills.  Here are three responses to watch out for: 

• The “Emotion” – “I just don’t know how I feel about this….”  
• The “Choice” – “I have some alternatives that I need to review first…”  
• The “Distraction” – “Right now, I just have too much going on to pay attention to this…  

 How we anticipate and ready for these common responses can make the difference between being able to close the deal, or not.   

As Jesus reached out for disciples to follow Him, He heard in response many reasons why not.  These responses were filled with emotion, choices and distractions as reasons to not follow Jesus. We do the same.  We let our emotions, choices and distractions get in the way daily of our walk with Christ.  Work in itself is filled with each of these.  We don’t feel like we can make the hard choices and when we get to that point there are business trips, meetings, a crisis that needs us now.  Within a moment, we have lost our path.  Jesus’ love is unwavering.  His gift for us comes without ties or catches and the only person who can close the deal, is ourselves.  Are we ready to put aside the emotions, the choices and the distractions and put our focus on Him?

Reference: Luke 9:62 (New Living Translation)