God Wants You To Follow Him and Completely Trust Him | Inspirational & Motivational
there is one Bible verse that should really Challenge and provoke every believer in Christ Luke Chapter 14 verse 33 says so likewise whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple the Bible is saying unless you surrender all to Jesus Christ unless you are ready and willing to give up all you possess cannot be a disciple of Christ and so each of us must ask ourselves the following questions firstly do I want to become a disciple of Jesus Christ because that comes at a cost secondly am I willing to forsake everything else for the sake of following Jesus Christ this passage of scripture certainly makes me think one translation of Luke Chapter 14 verse 33 reads simply put if you're not willing to take what is dearest to you whether plans or people and Kiss It Goodbye you can't be my disciple when Jesus made this statement that you must forsake all to be his disciple he wasn't just talking to the people who were around him at that time he was essentially speaking to all of his followers it's very straightforward some may even say it is blunt he makes it clear that if we do not let go of our Earthly Treasures we cannot follow him truthfully now for some groups of people they may feel as though God is asking too much of us his requests seem too extreme and inconvenient for us we may start to feel sorry for ourselves and imagine that we are in a movie where we are the victims and God is the villain we convince ourselves that God doesn't want us to have anything or to enjoy our lives but instead wants us to give everything up so that we become miserable and are left with nothing but we couldn't be more wrong God came to give us life and life in abundance God created the world and saw that what he had made was good the issue is that we are the ones who mess things up for ourselves the Lord will only use someone who is willing to give up everything for him the Bible makes it crystal clear that to be a disciple of Christ you must be willing to surrender everything else and hold on to Christ and Christ Alone if this wasn't the case then we would get our priorities all mixed up and end up placing our Earthly pleasures and treasures above Jesus by our very nature as humans we can be our own worst enemies at times because we are so easily drawn to and attracted to things that offer no benefit to our souls we push God further and further away in exchange for worldly things things that are temporary and have no benefit to you in eternity take the story in Matthew chapter 19 verse 16 to 22 for example a Rich Young Ruler approaches Jesus calling him good teacher the man asks Jesus what he'd have to do in order to gain eternal life Jesus responds by telling him to follow the Commandments but the rich man explains that he has already kept these Commandments his whole life he further prompts Jesus by asking what else he could do this time Jesus answers him if you want to be perfect go sell what you have and give to the poor you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me now Jesus doesn't say this because he thinks money is bad or that the man shouldn't own any possessions Jesus knew the man's heart and his thoughts he knew that the man thought too highly of his Earthly possessions and that this obsession is standing in the way of his relationship with God I believe that Jesus told this young man to sell his many possessions because he knew that by keeping his material things so close to his heart this young man would ultimately deny himself entry to eternal life in a way I believe Jesus was inadvertently telling all of us to stop indulging in our blessings but rather to use them to serve others and bring glory to God and in return Jesus promises we will gain treasure in heaven the rich young man probably didn't even hear that part all he heard was that he would have to lose all of his money he would have to lose his picture-perfect home in his many cars but if only he had focused on Jesus's promise of eternal life in heaven he wouldn't have felt the way he did we can sense the man's reluctance because scripture tells us that after that conversation he went away sorrowful he was sorrowful he was given a choice give up your Earthly riches for God and you will gain so much more in heaven but that choice made him sorrowful it was too painful for him to give away his great possessions we are often so focused on what we have here and now that we get concerned about losing it all yet instead we end up losing sight of the most important thing and that's eternity with God in the Bible Matthew 10 verse 38 to 39 says and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me he who finds his life will lose it he who loses his life for my sake will find it God knows what is best for us and he knows our deepest thoughts he doesn't want to take our enjoyment away but if we begin to idolize the blessing then we have a problem by letting go of or losing the things we idolize we gain life spiritual life eternal life that's what God wants for us but we don't do ourselves any favors when we stand in the way of God rescuing us from our idols in the case of the rich young man he valued his finances more than he valued God he laid up for himself Earthly Treasures instead of heavenly ones what God blessed him with became his God and Idol now could the thing that God has blessed us with become our Idol could we be rejecting the opportunity of eternal life by seeking something or someone other than God are we placing these things above God himself no matter what God has blessed us with finances family careers gifts talents friends which are all good things by the way we need to be careful not to put any of these above God for God himself said in Exodus chapter 20 verse 3. you shall have no other gods before me our God is a jealous God he wants us to be invested in him he doesn't want to play a small role in our lives he wants to have the leading role he wants to be the main character the protagonist but when we don't let go of what's keeping us away from him he cannot assume his role as Christians we should be willing to give up anything and everything for Christ now I understand that it's easier said than done but that is the cost that is what's required and it's either you're prepared to meet that requirement or not our sinful nature doesn't easily allow us to let go of what we hold on to in this life but when we think of the character of God who he is and what he has done for us it puts things into perspective we only have all these blessings because God gave them to us whatever we have is his our own lives are his the breath in our lungs is because of him he created us and knew us before he formed us he loves us so much that he created us in his own image and likeness with a purpose and plan for our lives his love for us is so great that he gave his one and only begotten son Jesus Christ who died for us so that we may have eternal life John 15 13 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