The 'What'

“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.’… ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has … for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age…and in the age to come…’” Mark 10:21, 29-30.

When I was having the interior walls repainted I had to go from room to room cleaning out closets and removing things from under the bed. I knew that I wanted that new and fresh feeling in every room. In an effort to get something new I had to deal with the old. Decisions had to consistently be made regarding the place each item would hold in the newly painted rooms. Our hearts house many idols that God wishes to remove from our lives.

This passage spells sacrifice…the white knuckled, tightly fisted hold on something that stands between the child of God and the Father. We all claim that we want to follow Christ in devotion and commitment. But, like the rich young ruler, we approach God asking for more intimacy with Him and pursuing a more righteous life exemplifying Him. We ask the question, ‘what?’ of the Savior only to walk away saddened in heart because the very thing He wishes us to surrender is that ‘thing’ that we have so meticulously built and protected. We hoard our idols in secret places as if He cannot see them. In our pursuit of Him He shines the light on those secret idols in hidden places and opens the fist, peeling back finger by finger. He works with us, for us but never against us.

He replaces trash with treasure and sacrifice with abundance. God promises that what we surrender in His name will be received back ‘100 times as much in this age and the next.’ What greater altar can we lay our sacrifice on than His altar of promise? Whatever we hold too tightly will entrap us but whatever we freely give to Him will liberate us.

What we sacrifice in the present will bring abundance in the future.