May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our LORD Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21.

Jesus . . . said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have . . . and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. Luke 18:22-23.

Wealth is treacherous, and the arrogant are never at rest. Habakkuk 2:5.

And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we come to number 115: His name remembered forever. Psalm 45:17: I will cause Your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore the peoples will give You thanks forever and ever. And, Ephesians 1:20-21; Hebrews 1:8: Which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.”

The second Scripture verse cited above was in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, and I have always had trouble with that verse. Reading what Chambers wrote: “Jesus did not show the least concern that this rich young ruler should do what He told him, nor did Jesus make any attempt to keep this man with Him. He simply said to him, “Sell all that you have . . . and come, follow Me.” Our LORD never pleaded with him; He never tried to lure him – He simply spoke the strictest words that human ears have ever heard, and then left him alone. This man understood what Jesus said. He heard it clearly, realizing the full impact of its meaning, and it broke his heart. He did not go away a defiant person, but as one who was sorrowful and discouraged. He had come to Jesus on fire with zeal and determination, but the words of Jesus simply froze him….And Jesus did not go after him, but let him go. Our LORD knows perfectly well that once His word is truly heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. What is so terrible is that some of us prevent His words from bearing fruit in our present life. I wonder what we will say when we finally make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain – He will never throw our past failures back into our faces.”

And the third Scripture verse cited above from Devotions for Women by Ann Spangler put it another way. She asked what is stealing our peace? She quoted Abraham Joshua Heschel: “He who wants to enter the holiness of the day must first lay down the profanity of clattering commerce, of being yoked to toil. He must go away from the screech of dissonant days, from the nervousness and fury of acquisitiveness and the betrayal in embezzling his own life.” She went on to say, “Heschel is saying that greed causes us to betray ourselves, to do something that’s both foolish and immoral, filching riches that are meant to characterize our lives. Riches like trusting that we belong to a Father who will provide. Riches like being at peace because God is in charge. Riches like enjoying life’s simple and most satisfying pleasures…Like a receding tide exposing what lies beneath the surface, the recent economic downturn has shown many of us how flimsy and fragile the things we depend on really are. If you suspect that greed has been embezzling your peace, tell God you want it to stop, and ask Him for the grace to change.”

Yesterday a visiting pastor shared that God is above everything, absolutely everything. He is greater than everything. Do we put something, even something good like family or work that provides for our family, before God? And I had to realize that I can put something negative like worry for our country or our world before God as though He is not able to bring the good we all need because everything wrong is so big. What Spangler wrote: “Riches like trusting that we belong to a Father who will provide…riches like being at peace because God is in charge” I need as I choose trusting God for everything. Jesus will not run after us but He is here when the receding tide exposes everything we thought bigger than God. We forget that God’s kingdom is real and we are a part of it now as we love and trust Him. And I pray for my heart in humbleness to listen to Him as He speaks hard things to me that I need to hear from Him. The pull of this world is strong but it cannot give what only Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, can give and give abundantly. Understanding. Hope. Love. Joy. Peace. Trust. Belonging. To what purpose? The most important purpose we will ever live: Being the children of Creator God who love Him and in loving Him are able to love one another.

***It is because of the hasty and superficial conversation with God that the sense of sin is so weak and that no motives have power to help you to hate and flee from sin as you should. A. W. Tozer (1897-1963).***