Keeping God in His place
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is that of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-22.) I try to think of it every time I start to get full of myself and think I am doing some good work for the Lord. I like the story so much because it is such a challenge to me. One of my struggles has always been trying to compartmentalize God. It is so easy to keep him around on the weekends or special occasions or during trying times. The hard part from our end is to not turn our backs during the good times or weekdays or just when it is convenient for us.
We worship a God who has offered us a fair trade. We can have eternal life, we just have to give Him…everything. I think that the young ruler realized that in a profound way. At the end of the exchange the ruler walked away from Christ because what He had asked for was too much. I have heard so many people judge this guy through my years in church. I wonder if confronted, though, how many of us would walk away if we were given the same direct challenge from the mouth of our Lord. It is so easy to give of our excess or to sit in our warm homes and study. To sell all we had and to follow Him wherever He leads? For most of us I think it would be impossible.
I agree. I think anyone who doesn’t see the grip our stuff can have on us from the story of the rich young ruler is just foolish.
Its kinda like bp talked about on Sunday about how when your reading exodus its so easy to say “come on you stupid Israelites, God just delivered you from Egypt with some awesomely miraculous stuff. how are you not going to believe in him?”, but we would do no better.
I really should view everything in my life that way. What am I not willing to give up and why? Even if its not much fun to do so.
[...] thought it was interesting that profblades would write this post as I was thinking about the limitations of logic. Lately I have been trying to figure out God. The [...]