Consider Him!
29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.” Mark 10:29-30
I find this passage very fascinating. I also think that our response to it is fascinating. Most of us that are born-again Christians probably wonder why we do not see the hundredfold blessing promised here. We look around at out lives and the lives of our friends and neighbors and realize that nobody is getting wealthy who is living for the Lord. So where is the promised wealth?
We also know that God’s idea of wealth and blessings is quite different from ours. So we reason that we miss the blessings because that are spiritual blessings, not physical ones. He is drawing us closer to Him and making our relationship with Him more real. Our time in heaven will be that much more glorious due to these blessings He is providing for us.
And we leave it at that.
How sad. The problem is that we completely ignore the qualifications for the blessings: “no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s” — that is the qualification. Who has done that? We strive to keep hold of our family, our reputation, our houses and lands, our bank account, our children’s future education, etc. We are not giving up our things for the gospel’s sake! We seldom leave everything, travel to a foreign land, and spend all our waking moments trying to reach people for Jesus! There are a few that do, and believe me they will certainly be blessed for it! They will receive sufficient for their temporal needs, as well as abundant friendships and joys abounding through their lives! These blessings actually do happen to people that meet these qualifications! The problem is, most of us do not begin to match that recipe for God’s hundredfold blessing.
God’s challenge today: consider HIM! He is worth ACTUALLY leaving everything for!
