LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND
Matthew 19:21
Jesus said to him, "If you want to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
It had been a long pack out of the mountains with a lot of elk meat on my back. I was completely exhausted and my back and hips ached so bad that I laid my pack in the cooler and went right to bed. I had carried fo much that day, hoping to make my job easier the next morning when we went back for the rest of the elk. It was a bad mistake.
When the rich your ruler, in the scripture above, had come to Jesus asking, "what must I do to be saved?". Jesus's response was basically to come to Him with nothing at all because we have nothing to offer the Lord but our love and faithfulness.
When we come to Christ we have need of nothing else. In verse 22 of that chapter it describes what the rich young ruler did and why, "22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property."
Recently a friend told me of when he resigned from a job to start his own business. He said that he walked in his boss's office with his company phone, truck keys, credit cars and anything else attached to that company. He was completely trusting in what the Lord was calling him to in a new venture. He left everything behind, fully trusting that God would take care of him.
What are you holding back? What is it in your life that you feel you have to hold on to... just in case God can't handle all your needs? There is nothing wrong with having possessions... but when we hold on instead of completely trusting God, that's the problem.
It wasn't that Jesus didn't want the young man in verse 21 to have good things, He just didn't want him to rely on his own power and possessions. He wants great things for you and I as well.
What is it the we are holding on to, just in case? Leave it all behind.
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