1 Samuel 12:24, ‘24 Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you’. As and when God gives us light, let us repent.
In Luke 18:22, ‘When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” In this verse we see that there is still one thing lacking. If we allow ourselves to submit to God, He will show us the areas we are lacking. The possessions in this life are a hindrance to follow the Lord. Only through Jesus Christ, we have life. Let us submit to Him and only then we will have an eternal life. Being extremely rich also, doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. It leads to a life, that is not depending on the Lord. It is only through the Lord; we have our deliverance.
In Luke 19:1-6, ‘He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. 3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly.’ We see here, about Zacchaeus. When we compare the stories of the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus, they have a stark contrast in terms of their possessions. We see how the people were displeased that Jesus had gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner, and they grumbled. But we see that Zaccheus was willing to give half of his wealth to the poor. V7-10, ‘7 When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”’
In Luke 18:24, 26-30, ‘24 And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! ‘, ‘26 They who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But He said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.” 28 Peter said, “Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You.” 29 And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.” Let us surrender fully to the Lord. We are a transit in this world. We will not possess. We see Jesus, showing the way to get rid of our possessions. When we come to God and ask frankly what is the area we are lacking, He will show to us lovingly, the areas we need to get rid of which are hindering us to follow Him wholeheartedly on earth.
In Luke14:33,34, ‘33 So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. 34 “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?’ and Leviticus 2:12, 13, ‘12 As an offering of first fruits you shall bring them to the Lord, but they shall not ascend for a soothing aroma on the altar. 13 Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.’ We see salt is used as a preservative. God wants permanent commitment. It comes if we repent daily and seek the Holy Spirit. In 1 Samuel 15:17-19, ‘17 Samuel said, “Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, 18 and the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”’, We see Samuel mentioning to Saul, that when he was small in his own eyes, he was made the head of the tribes of Israel. God asked Saul to destroy the Amalekites completely, but Saul did not obey God completely, by sparing the best of cattle. When God commands us to destroy everything, we need to do it, by obeying Him completely. Keep all the possessions on the altar.
1 Samuel 15:2-4, 6-9, ‘2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” 4 Then Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah.’, ‘6 Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, so that I do not destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came up from Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 So Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. 21 But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” 22 Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23 “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.” ‘30 Then he said, “I have sinned; but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and go back with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.”’
Saul after disobeying God, he was seeking honor before men. The question we need to ask ourselves is this, ‘are we keeping all the possessions, honor, reputation, money etc. on the altar of God? Good things or bad, we need to surrender everything to the Lord and in love, He will show us our faults.
As in Matthew 6:19-21, ‘19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ We need to cry for the treasures of heaven and be more like Jesus. As in Philippians 3:7-12, 14, ‘7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.’ 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’ We need to consider the riches of this world as trash. We see Paul’s heart – he says he is not perfect and Christ, laid hold of Paul to give the gospel to the gentiles.
In Revelation 3:17-21,’ 17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne’. We will be tempted by the riches of this world. We need to overcome with the help of the Lord. The rich young ruler was miserable because he was lacking in this area. We need to seek God earnestly in this area of our life. Strive on to have His nature and eternal life.
May God bless all of us.
