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Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” Mark 10:21-22

This was the response Jesus gave to the rich young man when he asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life. Upon Jesus’ response, the man walked away saddened and defeated because he knew he was unwilling to surrender his wealth. He didn’t have the faith to trust that anything could be attained by surrendering everything in his life.

How many of us have walked away from our time with God knowing what we have been convicted to surrender through the Holy Spirit's urging? 'Jesus looked at him and loved' the passage states. Through the love of Jesus as the verse states He revealed the one thing this man was required to do. Christ does the same thing for us through our time with Him. He will reveal whatever is holding us back from receiving the full measure of fellowship with Him. Whatever we hold onto too tightly God will ask for our surrender.

The priority we place in our lives over our relationship with God will be the very thing He peels one finger back at a time opening our tight grip. What we are surrendering is never really the issue but rather the act of surrendering and the heart of the surrender.

God will ask to receive in full what hurts us to give in part.