"Look At What I Have Given Up!"

Reference: Mark 10:29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property--along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life." 

Observation: Our flesh loves to remind us what we have given up for God--or what He wants us to give up for Him. Here Jesus makes it clear that in God’s economy, when we give up for Him and for the Gospel we get back and more. Not just in this life but in the life to come.
By the way, I don’t think Jesus is saying here that we ought to ditch our kids or our family to follow Him. He knows that sometimes the decision to be His disciples will cost people their family allegiances. There are plenty of examples of people who have been disowned by their families or rejected by others simply because of following Christ.
Has it cost us something to follow Him? We should expect, ask, that God will restore all it has cost us and more, but don’t forget, we get persecution too!! The real good news is that God promises us eternal life in the deal. 

Application/Confession: My decision to become a pastor and follow my call has cost me. There are many other careers I could have pursued and most of them would have afforded me a more lucrative lifestyle. I stand expecting, reminding God, not in a complaining way, but in a faith-filled way, of the sacrificial choices Gloria and I have made. I expect Him to return to me blessings for what we have chosen to give up for His Kingdom. 

I read this passage one year and I was asking God for a car. Well, you know what, by the next year when I got back to this passage, God had given me one! I wrote, at that time, that we were asking for a new home. God enabled us to "renew" our current home at a fraction of the normal cost. I am so thankful for all that God has done, is doing and will do!!

PRAYER: Lord, You say that if we give up things for the pursuit of your Kingdom that You will return it to us. Right now, on the basis of this verse, I ask for your blessing. We have given up much for your Kingdom. I ask that we would see blessings in return.