Jesus doesn’t respond to questions and circumstances the way I would.

Consider this encounter he had:

Jesus Counsels the Rich Young Ruler  (Luke 18: 18 – 23)

¹⁸ Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹ So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honour your father and your mother.’ ”

²¹ And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”

²² So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

²³ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

I probably would have said something like, “Good on ya mate. Well done. Keep up the good work.”

Well? He was doing a good job wasn’t he?

What did Jesus say?

“You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

You see, we think we’re living a good religious life but Jesus wants more. He wants our everything. Why? Because He knows that without devoting everything to Him, we lack.

Had that young man received my kind of reply he would have gone off a little puffed up and probably live a good religious life, been a pillar of his community and left a legacy of hard working, well-behaved offspring,

BUT HE WOULD HAVE MISSED OUT ON THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE HIS BEST LIFE!

We have got to stop patting each other on the back for just keeping the law and living a good life, because God has so much more for us.

Sadly the rich young ruler had the opportunity but passed it up because he loved his riches too much.

This challenges me so much. I have so far to go. We have to ask ourselves the question, “WHAT IS IT THAT I HAVE THAT I DON’T THINK I CAN WALK AWAY FROM?”

Whatever it is, and the answer is different for all of us, it is keeping us from being all that God purposed us to be. It is an idol which we exalt higher than we do our Creator. Jesus challenges us to stop hiding behind good religious works and trust Him enough to give Him our everything.

Oh the amazing miracles we would see if we just left our comfort zone behind, stuck our necks out and took our amazing God at His word!