Matthew 19:21-22 (NKJV) 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
A very wealthy young ruler had come to Jesus and asked Him what he needed to do to have eternal life.
Jesus gave him a short list of important things that he should do. The young man replied that he was already doing those things and asked if there was anything else he needed to do.
As the young man waited for Jesus to answer, he was very likely thinking that he was in pretty good shape due to the life he led and the fact that he was already following all of the things Jesus had told him to do.
But then Jesus told him that he would need to sell all of his possessions and give to the poor. Upon hearing this, the young man went away sad.
Why did he go away sad? It wasn’t because he was rich. It was because he held so tightly to his wealth that he wasn’t willing to give it away, even at the expense of his eternal destiny.
What about us? How well would we handle this same scenario? Would we also walk away sad?
We don’t have to have great wealth to be greedy or to hold too tightly to what we have. But what we do have, we need to be willing to let go of, if God requires of us to do so.
When we are blessed with material possessions, we need to hold them loosely, so that if, or when, God asks us to give them away, we won’t have a hard time doing so.
And if we don’t have great wealth, it doesn’t excuse us from giving, either. Whether we have little or we have much, God requires of us to give!
Luke 21:1-4 (NKJV) 21 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, 2 and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. 3 So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; 4 for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”
So let’s ask God to search our hearts in this and ask Him to show us if we’re holding too tightly to what we have been blessed with.
Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808
401-315-0902
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