Comeuppance

8/17/2020

Luke 18:22 “Yet lackest thou one thing; sell all that thou hast…and come, follow Me.”

I have just received a spiritual comeuppance. As I have shared before, recently my husband lost his job. This has mostly been a time of fervent prayer and resting on God’s provision and grace. There is so much darkness surrounding the events that brought us to this place, and sometimes I get caught up by it all. So today, I started to get the “it’s not fair” mindset and “how can we fight back?” strategizing again. I am not proud of these machinations, but I will confess to them. Then I sat down to write. The verse today is from the passage where Jesus is answering a rich man about how to get to heaven. Jesus tells him to sell all he has, give it to the poor, and follow Him. Then He goes on to say in verse 25, “Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Quite a picture He painted with those words.

So, I am duly rebuked. I was starting to focus on money and what is just in my eyes instead of immediately lifting the situation up to Jesus. In my flesh I want justice and retribution, but this is never where my heart and thinking should be, no matter the struggle. God expects more from me, but never forces the point. He wants my faith and obedience no matter how difficult it may be in my human frailty.

Chambers writes, “Jesus did not seem in the least solicitous that this man should do what He told him, He made no attempt to keep him with Him. He simply said—Sell all you have, and come, follow me. Our Lord never pleaded, He never cajoled, He never entrapped; He simply spoke the sternest words mortal ears ever listened to, then left it alone.” The man did not give up his wealth to follow Jesus; instead, he walked away unwilling and deflated. The man would never know this side of heaven what he gave up. He chose the temporal over the eternal.

What about me? Do I want to devote myself to Jesus, or put importance on what the world calls me to focus on? Do I truly believe that God’s words and leading will bear fruit, and am I willing to wait on His timing? Am I willing to give up all I have and follow Jesus? In my own strength, this can never be, but I am a child of the Almighty through Whom the improbable and impossible will occur.

Verse 27, Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”