Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
Heavenly Father, may Your Word speak life to me today. Confront any idols in my life, and give me the grace to abandon them and follow You with all my heart. Amen.
Reading
This man came to Jesus longing for eternal life. He had clearly dedicated his life to the pursuit of God and His Kingdom, because since childhood, he had intentionally focussed on obeying the commandments of God.
It’s so interesting that when Jesus listed the commandments the man should obey (v.19), He only named those that have to do with our relationships with other people, and then He summed those up with the command, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
The young man was so confident that he had ticked all of those boxes. He had honoured his parents; he had not murdered, committed adultery, stolen, nor borne false witness. This man seems to have figured out his interpersonal holiness very well indeed.
But then, when he still pressed Jesus for more, Jesus cut to the heart of what was keeping this young man from embracing the Kingdom. He may have embraced legalistic holiness in his interpersonal relationships, but when it came to the commands relating to God, he was falling at the first hurdle. In Exodus 20:3, God laid down the very first commandment as:
‘You shall have no other gods before me.’
When Jesus looked at his young man, He saw right through him. He diagnosed a heart that loved money more then he loved God. Money was his god. It was his idol. So, in characteristically direct fashion, Jesus prescribed the cure:
‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’
The story ends tragically in v.22:
“When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
And how does this relate to us today? Must we all sell everything and give it all away? No, not necessarily. But if we want to genuinely experience life in the Kingdom of God, we do need to eradicate from our lives anything and everything that we have come to love more than we love the Lord. Every idol must bow down to the Living God, and we must bow to none!
What are your idols? Get rid of them … today!
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn the following declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will renounce and rid myself of anything and everything that has taken God’s place of first priority and first love in my life.
Heavenly Father, You deserve to be my highest love. Holy Spirit, help me to rid myself of every idol today, Amen.
Dave's Diary 
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