The last thing the rich, young ruler was expecting to hear was perhaps the first thing that Jesus saw in his heart.
I imagine that the confident young man mentioned in Mark 10:17-31 was filled with anticipation of feeling even better about himself as he approached the man claiming to be the Messiah.
After all, he was the kind of young man that any Jewish father would like to have as a son. A role model for others, he was moral, he was respectful and he was honest.
I’m sure that many young women would have loved to have had husbands like this man.
Those characteristics were excellent.
But excellent is not good enough when it comes to salvation.
There was a huge hole in his life, a hole that opened to the pits of hell.
It was a hole that he was trying to cover with the flimsy security blankets of material possessions and peer approval.
Wow.
It was a hole that the young man’s peers, and even himself, did not correctly discern.
Yet it was a hole that defined him as in mortal danger of eternal damnation.
Jesus saw it right away even though the young man was oblivious.
Stuff cannot save.
And if we ever trust stuff for our sense of emotional and spiritual confidence more than we trust surrendering to Christ, we won’t be going up when we die.
That would be a very bad thing.
Jesus told the young man that he had to make a choice between stuff and surrendering completely to Him.
The man chose earthly wealth and spiritual poverty.
How sad.
What is the recurring struggle that you face when it comes to complete surrender to Christ?
I pray that you don’t try to cover that spiritual hole in your life that needs to be filled with the presence, power and authority of Christ. Whatever flimsy blanket of self-seeking desire that Satan offers to you must be tossed away as useless.
It does no good to attempt a spiritual compensation by strenthening other parts of your faith life while your “weak link” grows weaker with every passing rejection of Christ’s call to fully surrender ALL parts of your life to Him.
Christ sees first what you hope others see last.
Please fill all of your life with Him. It’s so much safer than thinking you can stand on flimsy blankets stretched over holes.
As always, I love you
Martin
