Giving It All Up

I want you to ask yourself a question. What are you willing to give up to follow Christ? What is the easiest thing to give up, and what would be the hardest thing to give up? In our country today, we are so tied to “stuff” and “happenings” and “people”. Even when we are at our most spiritual, the things of this life continue to tug at us, actually, especially when we are at the peak of spirituality. Satan wants to deceive us and slowly pull us down from that mountaintop.

Reading through Philippians 3:1-12 we hear from Paul about his extraordinary life and confidence in who he was as a Jew. To hear him say it, one would understand that he had the magic ride to religious perfection. Blameless when it came to righteousness under the law. (He reminds me of a rich young ruler that came upon Christ.) This was definitely a man working his way to heaven.

Something changed all of that. A true change of heart. Literally! He had his own encounter with Christ Jesus. It was somewhat different than the rich young ruler, but he had the same decision to make; give up everything he had worked for to follow Jesus. It’s easy to give up everything if you don’t have much. He was giving up the opportunity to be a great leader in the Jewish temple. He had studied under the best. He had prepared all of his life for this future amongst the elites of the Sanhedrin. He was giving up everything that he had worked all of his life to attain.

With his heart changed, he became an outcast of his people and also the government. But, he did not count that as loss. Even through all of his sufferings following Christ, and there were many, he gave it all up freely, never looking back wanting what he had lost. He was free from the earthly things pulling him toward earthly power. He did not want that power or prestige. He only wanted to be in Christ and have Christ rule over him. Paul wanted to realize the power of the resurrection. He wanted Jesus Christ living in him, the power of the Holy Spirit coursing through his being.

Can you look at your life, your career, your family, your success and your belongs and truthfully say that if God asked you to give all of that up, you wouldn’t hesitate to give it up? Or, knowing that it was the Spirit leading you, would you try to deceive yourself that it wasn’t the Spirit, looking for a way out? What if He told you to leave your church because He knew that they weren’t speaking the truth. Leave the people that you loved in such a spiritual way, the people you had prayed with countless times. What if He went as far as asking you to give up EVERYTHING and live on the streets to preach and care for the homeless.

Is there a limit to what you’re willing to do or give up to follow Him? After all, He’s the one with the plan. He’s the one with the knowledge, and He’s the only one Who can save us and cure our souls.