RECEIVING MORE BY GIVING UP MORE

One day Jesus and his followers were discussing the challenges that people experience when they choose to give up self-will and follow God’s will.  In this world we are told to pursue things like pleasure, popularity, power, and money.  These are held out as necessary to have if we are to experience satisfaction and happiness. Too many of us have pursued one or more of those ways and found addiction and suffering at the end of the road. Jesus reminds His followers that even if we give up some things in the short term to follow Him, we will receive much 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)

We can hang onto these promises from God as we let go of those things that cause us to stumble.  When we choose to enter an addiction treatment facility and step away from people, places, and things that are familiar, we may feel challenged. Pulling away may come when the busyness of a job and earning money doesn’t leave time for God or meetings.  With each pay cheque, we drift further and further away from fellowship with God and others, and too many of us have let sobriety slip away.  The desire for sex and companionship also takes many of us away from God’s plan for our lives. 

All of us need to ask ourselves if there is anything we need to leave behind so that we can follow God with all our heart.  God assures us that when we choose to put Him first in our lives, we will experience His promise of great blessings in return. 

Prayer:  Loving God, I confess my heart is so easily pulled in different directions.  Help me to honour You with my time and to give priority to those things that keep me alive and alert to Your presence in my life.  Give me the courage to leave behind anything that hinders Your purpose and will for my life.  Amen