Here is your daily encouragement words and thoughts. Today I bring you encouragement from Mark 10:17-27
17 Now as Jesus was starting out on his way, someone ran up to him, fell on his knees, and said, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
20 The man said to him, “Teacher, I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws since my youth.”
21 As Jesus looked at him, he felt love for him and said, “You lack one thing. Go, sell whatever you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 But at this statement, the man looked sad and went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.
23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the
kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were astonished at these words. But again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but not for God; all things are possible for God.”
Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Mk 10:17-27). Biblical Studies Press.
So, this passage again, or at least this story again. These kinds of passages are difficult to face. They are difficult to face in that in general so many of us in North America live in such abundance. At a minimum we have enough to eat most days and a roof over our head. Not all in the world have even this luxury. Some of us have stuff to over abundance. I do not think it is a measure of how much we have, but the plain fact that we have.
So I am going to dig down today and see what I can unfold for us.
Our text starts with a rich man who runs up to Jesus and fell on his knees, and said to Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus reads him right off the top. Let’s just look at what the rich man said. "What must I do". So often we have this agenda on our mind that we are in control of what God can and will do and that it is in our power to get to it and do what must be done. The rich man had obviously seen Jesus and perhaps heard some of his teaching. The rich man had clued into the fact that Jesus was bringing something new to the table. The rich man had tried very hard to obey all the law and felt that he was successful, but in hearing Jesus, he was sensing that there was more to it than just the law.
Side Note: When we have wealth we have the ability to change things around us. This power tends to move us to trust in what we with our wealth can do.
Jesus shocks the rich man with the statement "No one is good except God alone." What Jesus is saying here is a fundamental statement of Christianity. It is impossible by human achievement to be "good", we cannot meet God's standard by our efforts. With that said Jesus lists some of the commandments of what a man must do. The rich man immediately says “been there and done all of that”.
"As Jesus looked at him, he felt love for him". Jesus could see the want in his heart but the man's focus was impaired by his wealth. Now there is nothing wrong with wealth. God can greatly bless you with things. Wealth becomes a problem when you put your trust into the wealth and not into the wealth giver. The more wealth you have the harder it will be to keep your focus to God. I once heard someone say; when you run into wealth unexpectedly your first question should be "God what is this for". So often we just run off and say oh good now I can get x. Yes maybe God has supplied to you wealth so that x can be obtained. Maybe money has arrived that allows you to eat or pay the rent. The key is to continue to seek God through our blessings. Well you might say "but I work hard for my money!" God gave you the talent to earn your money.
Note on the side: Being given wealth can be difficult as well. We might say in our pride that we do not need hand outs, we can make it on our own. But reality is that God moves his goods around and if you reject what is given too you, you are stopping the flow of God’s plan. If the rich man could not find someone to give to then he would still be struggling. We need to ask the question: Lord what is this for?
This statement by Jesus is important to note for our own faith life. To know that when Jesus looks at me he feels love for me is a gift in itself.
Back to the text: Jesus then tells him to go sell everything and give to the poor and come follow him. Now this is not a new law added to the commandments. It is not another thing that you can just go do and all will be okay, but rather Jesus is pointing him in the direction of what he must do to inherit eternal life. He must remove his obstacle to changing his focus from maintaining and enhancing his wealth to being concerned of the things of God. God needs to be first in the equation. Jesus gave to him the short cut to his question. “The man looked sad and went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.” The man walked away in shock I would say. He had done everything in his life in his own strength to meet the expectations of the law. He had done the things that made him a respected member of the community. He was now being asked to totally rework his life picture, to give up control and give it to God.
Jesus, after the man had left, commented that it was hard for someone with lots of wealth to put their trust in God instead of themselves.
This even shook the disciples. “Who can be saved then?” they asked. In this question is the key to it all.
Jesus said to them “This is impossible for mere humans, but not for God; all things are possible for God.” The beauty of this statement is that in the end this change is something that you cannot do. The bad part of this statement is that this change is something that you cannot do. We all want to be in control of our lives. Ultimately though, God is in control he has the big canvas in front of him and he alone works with knowledge.
What we can do is to be open to God's nudges. We need to pull in tight to his word that we may come to know his ways. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
Several people in my family have died over the last couple of years. When you go home to the lord you leave behind all that you have collected. You were in essence a store house of God's inventory that will now be available to others.
With all this in mind, I try yet again to check my focus. Have I got my eyes on Jesus.
In closing, I ask God to do what only he can do, change me. Use me for your purpose Lord. Let me be a blessing to those around me. Help me care for those who you have put in my family of friends. Help me to remember to ask the question. What is this all for Lord?
Amen
Music Encouragement I Will Trust In You
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