Giving Up For Him...

Luke 18:18-30

English Standard Version (ESV)

 ¹⁸ And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

¹⁹And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

²⁰You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'"

²¹And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth."

²²When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

²³ But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

²⁴Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

²⁶Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?"

²⁷But he said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

²⁸And Peter said, "See, we have left our homes and followed you."

²⁹And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers^[a] or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,

³⁰who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life."

As I was reading today`s devotions, I was reminded once again by the Holy Spirit that God deals with each one of His children individually as we all have our own distinct ways of living that prevent us from following Him and obeying His will. God doesn`t play games, and in this passage in the Gospel of Luke we see how strict Jesus was with this young man because He knows our hearts and what truly rules our lives. Jesus saw that this young man followed the Law that Moses wrote down; however his heart was far away from God.

In this passage Jesus challenged this young man with something more sacred and more important to God—personal relationships with Him. It is so often that we claim ourselves to be “Christians” when in reality we only follow “the Law” by going to the church, home group, reading Bible devotions every day, or every other day, praying once a day for 15 min., etc. but in reality our hearts are far away from God and it prevents us from following His will.

God is very patient with us, and He doesn`t nag us or beg us; He generally say something personal to individual once and then He withdraws, so when we don`t hear Him say anything after that, it is because there is nothing else to say. It`s either His way or no way.

I remember when I fought with God for a good three weeks before I gave in to His will and finally obeyed Him by apologizing before my husband for being unforgiving, angry, and bitter. I remember lying in bed for a good fifty minutes before I could utter those words because they went against my own instincts and pride. My pride was telling me not to do that because he doesn`t deserve to hear those words, but I chose obedience to God over that because I knew there was no other way for me. I didn`t want to be in the desert any longer isolated from God with my sins, so I made that step of obedience into the right direction, and it produced fruit that same week. It didn`t sold all of my problems, but if gave me that small break and reassurance that God is there for me when I follow Him, and He provides for me the necessary situations and resources to come out as a winner.

If you look inside your heart, do you have something that keeps you from “following Jesus”? Is there something that you need “to sell” such as pride, hard heart, your old ways of living, your carnality because none of those things would allow you to Hear God nor comply with His will. Paul clearly stated what our God`s will is for each one:

Ephesians 1:8-10

New International Version (NIV)

⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding,
⁹ he^[a] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,
¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

God`s will is to bring the whole universe that He created in obedience to Jesus Christ. In other words, when we see Jesus telling this young man to sell off his properties to follow Him, He is waiting for that obedience. God knows our hearts, and He knows that we are selfish and always have something holding our attention, our heart that is inappropriate. Our Lord demands that we glorify Him first. We cannot do that if we concentrate on things that are selfish to our own benefits.

I like how Oswald Chambers said:

This man understood what Jesus said. He heard it clearly, realizing the full impact of its meaning, and it broke his heart. He did not go away as a defiant person, but as one who was sorrowful and discouraged. He had come to Jesus on fire with zeal and determination, but the words of Jesus simply froze him. Instead of producing enthusiastic devotion to Jesus, they produced heartbreaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, but let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly well that once His word is truly heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. What is so terrible is that some of us prevent His words from bearing fruit in our present life.

God`s word bears fruit when we hear it and not just listen to it. How many times have I gone to the church and listened to the sermon without “hearing” it. How many times did I deny God`s obedience because I was “discouraged” by the amount of hard work it involved and went against my own desires and selfishness. The only way to please Him and to bear fruit is to die for oneself. I am still trying to do that because it`s extremely hard to do.

It is important to ask yourself whether there is something in one`s heart that takes precedent over God because He is not going to plead or beg; He is going to simply leave us alone. I personally don`t ever want to be in that place when I don`t hear His voice again or feel His support because it`s a horrible place to be where you are left all to yourself and to your own selfish motives and carnal lifestyle. I`ve been there, done it, and I am not going back.

If you have something in your life that you feel like takes precedent over God, something that you are holding on and not willing to “sell”, I encourage you to make that lip of faith and give it up because God will reward you for that. He is already doing that with me. The amount of peace and reassurance that I get when I surrender to Him my life, my circumstances, my problems, my husband, could not be explained; it could only be personally experienced. I encourage you to pray and repent in whatever that kept your attention away from God, so instead of being discouraged with His will, be reassured that He will not fail you. His ways are way better than our ways.