Putting our treasures in proper perspective...
Matthew 19:21
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
Personal Challenge...
It is so easy to read this passage and dismiss it because we read it as Jesus dealing with wealth. It goes much farther than this. What am I holding on to as higher value than Jesus? Is it my position at work or in the church? Is it my stuff that I have accumulated? Is it my pains from my past that I let control me? Is it my social, political, or other world view that I value more than God's view? Is it my knowledge and worldly wisdom that I have accumulated? Is it my pride and arrogance? I am being told here to let go of, give up, cast off, everything that stands between me and the cross. This must be a willing casting off and not one done out of duress. And the closer I get to Christ the more personal these items that I need to cast off become, even to the point of total self-sacrifice. But the command does not stop there...I am to follow Christ, willingly, wherever He leads me. He will take me places where I do not want to go, for in these places I will discover more that I must cast off. However,if I desire to know Christ intimately and become like Him, this is the process that I must follow.
Matthew 19:21
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
Personal Challenge...
It is so easy to read this passage and dismiss it because we read it as Jesus dealing with wealth. It goes much farther than this. What am I holding on to as higher value than Jesus? Is it my position at work or in the church? Is it my stuff that I have accumulated? Is it my pains from my past that I let control me? Is it my social, political, or other world view that I value more than God's view? Is it my knowledge and worldly wisdom that I have accumulated? Is it my pride and arrogance? I am being told here to let go of, give up, cast off, everything that stands between me and the cross. This must be a willing casting off and not one done out of duress. And the closer I get to Christ the more personal these items that I need to cast off become, even to the point of total self-sacrifice. But the command does not stop there...I am to follow Christ, willingly, wherever He leads me. He will take me places where I do not want to go, for in these places I will discover more that I must cast off. However,if I desire to know Christ intimately and become like Him, this is the process that I must follow.
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