Identity

In Luke 18:18-30, Jesus asks the rich ruler to give up the entirety of his possessions in order to follow Him. The young man simply came to Jesus requesting the next box to check in order to receive eternal life. He had followed all the rules and done all the things and expected a pat on the back from Jesus- "Your mission is complete, young man. You're good to board the next flight to those pearly gates." But that wasn't Jesus's response, and it was a painful realization for the ruler. He walked away in sadness not just over his possessions, but over what had become his identity.

It's easy to interpret this passage as a call to hold material wealth loosely- and that is a reasonable application. But we can see that Jesus is asking for so much more than that if we're willing to read it closely. "Those who heard this asked, 'Who then can be saved?'" after Jesus explained how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. "Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with men is possible with God.'" And that's what it all boils down to-- as long as we believe that it is our own efforts that result in eternity with God, we will eventually walk away in sadness, realizing that we can never do enough of the things.

Jesus is telling us to be willing to give Him everything we are-- because the kingdom of God is ours only through Him. Targeting and freeing ourselves from the possessions that keep us from His presence is fairly easy; but are you able to grasp that Jesus also calls us to hold our identity with just as loose of a grip? Are we willing to claim that our identity is in Christ, even if that means He wants us to release some of our most precious desires into His hands?

This is a concept I am processing a lot lately; when our desires are aligned with His will, He wants to satisfy them for His name's sake. But the more we draw near to Him, asking for His will to be done, may we be prepared for it to often look different, but dare I say, even better than what we could've imagined for ourselves. He just asks us to be willing.

We must be willing to lose not just everything we have, but everything we are to discover that He is everything we need.