17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 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 amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “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 someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
-Mark 10:17-31
When we enter the kingdom of God, we enter eternal life. BUT, not everyone gets to enter God's kingdom. Just like the man in this passage wanted, we Christians also want eternal life. We want to go to heaven and live eternally with Jesus where all things are Good.
But, how do we get eternal life? It must be gifted to us from God, and in order to receive that gift, we need to be faithful to God and listen to His commands. In verse 19, Jesus answers the man telling him that we need to listen to the commandments and obey those laws.
As you read those commandments, what do you think about your actions? Have you been following all of those commandments? Have you broken any of them?
Just like the disciples, I was also amazed at Jesus's response, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" I have never even thought about this before. After reflecting on Jesus' words, I understand the picture now. Typically, rich people are "greedy" and "selfish." They usually keep all the money to themselves and barely share any of that wealth. They always feel secure and protected and always want more and more. However, if the wealthy were to get rid of all the money they have as Jesus told the man to do, they would feel bare and unprotected. You can see in verse 22, the man left SAD. He already knew. He knew how hard it was going to be to let all of his wealth go.
I feel like this is such a typical human trait. Most of us rely on money. We love money. We want more, and some of us even define success as being rich. We look to wealthy celebrities and millionaires and admire them as we hope our future would look like theirs one day. As humans, we just naturally depend on money.
What Jesus wants, though, is for us to forget about all that money. Throw the money away. Stop clinging onto it like it's our lifeline. Instead, look at God. He is here and just chillin, waiting for us to depend on him. Shouldn't God be enough? We should be clinging onto God as the source of our everything, not money or other things. Fill our barrenness with God's trust and then we will know the true feeling of being protected.
My favorite line is: "All things are possible with God." God is so powerful that He can do great things with our lives. If we are poor, God will say "I gotchu." If we are ever struggling and feeling helpless, God's got us. As long as we remain faithful to God and do our part as His children, God will do the rest. With Him, we are capable of overcoming anything. Think about it right now. Don't you feel safe knowing that our lives are in the hands of God?
Whatever we are using as our shield, our security, our protection right now, can we leave it all to God? We should at least do it for Jesus. Let Him be the source of our life, then we will receive His glory and eternal life.
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