Have you ever experienced complete abandonment and extreme peace? It’s a feeling that is only truly understood when it is felt. So many people are searching for something, but are looking in all the wrong places for it. There is only one thing that can fill the hole within you that you are so desperately trying to fill: Jesus Christ, and he only asks for everything.
In the book of Mark, Jesus asked a wealthy young man to do the same thing that He is asking us to do: give everything and to follow Him, which in the case of the young man was all of his wealth. For us, our “wealth” could be just that, wealth, or it could be fear, anxiety, a relationship, an addiction or anything and everything that is coming between us and our Heavenly Father. He asks this of you and I because He wants to give us eternity. He wants to give us immense peace and freedom while we are on this Earth and then He wants to give us a never-ending life with Him in His kingdom.
But there is a problem. We all are just like this young man. When we are told to give it all, we can’t and we turn from God and cling to ourselves, our comfort zones and our control. We are so blinded by ourselves that we can’t see all that the Lord so desperately wants to give us. He wants to give us everything. He wants to give us more than we already have. He wants to bring us happiness and joy that we have never felt before, all he asks is for us to give everything we have over to Him.
Jesus didn’t ask for all of the young man’s possessions through anything other than love. In Mark, it says that Jesus looked at him and loved him. He loves this man and that is why he wants it all from him, because Jesus knows that once this man lets go, he will gain infinitely more than what he already has. In the same way that Jesus loved this man, God loves us the exact way when He asks us for it all. Because He loves us so, He wants to give us more than we will ever deserve and only asking for something so little.
So stop making excuses for how you are living your life. Don’t be comfortable in the middle of your messy sin. Don’t turn defensive when someone is trying to shine a light into the back of your closet on all of those hurtful secrets. You are not defined by where you have been. You are made new through the King who died for you. Jesus gave it all for you. Let go of everything and give it all back. Don’t be complacent, but instead allow the Lord to work in your life and make your messiness clean. It only takes one step of faith to Him and you will have it all.
Ask anyone who has made the choice to give it all to gain even more. It is something that is so indescribable and only fully understood when it is experienced. But not one person would say they regret it. It made them better and it made their life better. They are letting the Lord fully flow through them and out into their lives. It is challenging, however, battling the constant urges to fall back to ourselves, but after tasting all the Lord has to offer, you will never want to go back. All of those urges and temptations you faced before will disappear and all you will desire is the Lord. It may seem impossible to you right now, but I promise you, it is possible. It only takes faith and trust.
Stop holding onto everything. Give it to the God of the universe, the only one who can give you eternal life. As Jesus told his disciples after the young man walked away, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” By not letting go you are doubting God. All things are possible with God so why doubt? Jesus then goes onto say,
“Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mothers or fathers or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields — along with persecutions — and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
This is Jesus’s promise to everyone who will ever live: by giving everything you have to live a life following Him and proclaiming Him and the gospel, you will not fail to receive the greatest riches in your eternal life with your Heavenly Father. Give it all to gain it all. It’s as simple as that.
If you would like to read more of this story in Mark, read Mark 10:17-31.
