Receiving More By Giving Up More
One day Jesus and his followers discussed the challenges that people experience when they choose to give up self-will and follow God’s will. Our world has different values and we are told to pursue things like pleasure, popularity, power, and money. These are held out as necessary if we are to experience satisfaction and happiness in life. Too many of us have gone down those routes and found addiction and suffering at the end of the road. Jesus reminds His followers that for anything we give up in the short term in order to follow Him, we will receive more in return than we could ever imagine.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” (Matthew 19:23, 27, 29-30 NIV)
Each of us needs to ask ourselves if there is something we need to leave behind in order to follow God with our whole heart. We are assured that when we choose to put God first, we will experience His promise of great blessings in return.
Prayer: Loving God, I confess my heart can easily be pulled in different directions. Help me to honour You with my time and to give priority to those things that keep me alive to Your presence in my life. Give me the courage to leave behind anything that hinders Your will for my life. Amen
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