Then Peter began to say to Him, "See, we have left all and followed You." So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first."-- Mark 10:28-31
These verses are the last part of a section of Scripture where Jesus is speaking to the difficulty of salvation for someone who has much in this world. (see study on rich young ruler) When you have much here, you may not really be able to appreciate God's gift of grace in His Son. You are already fat and happy with what you have and tragically would rather give up God than your money or your possessions.
Peter sounds so much like us here when he says...Look, Lord..."see" we have left all and followed You. In effect Peter is saying, Lord, what is in it for me? What do I get out of it? Pretty sure this is not the heart attitude we are suppose to have in serving our Lord. It probably needs to be more like Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up." --Daniel 3:16-17
Our Lord wants us willing to give Him our all and when we are willing, He repays us one hundred fold both now and in the age to come. It may not be in the same way and it will be with persecution but repay us He will! (and remember we are to rejoice when we suffer for His sake...He works it all together for our good and His glory) He assures us in these verses that no one who follows him will ever lose or be without what is really important.
Truly, whatever He removes from our hearts and/or our lives, He replaces with more of Him. And here is the thing...at the beginning of a trial you may scream and yell...rant and rave about what the Lord is doing, but by the time the trial has run its course you find yourself thanking God for it because now you see your Lord more clearly and love Him more dearly! The thing that you once considered dear and valuable has become nothing in the light of Him. Girls, the riches we have in Christ are unfathomable. Patrick Henry said the following:
"I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that and I had not given them a single shilling, they would have been rich; and if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor indeed."
If it were just rewards we received for following Jesus all of us would hop on the bandwagon. Look at the people that crowded around our Lord to be healed but shouted crucify Him a short time later. Jesus tests our hearts by allowing trials and persecutions to come our way. The church of Smyrna described in the Book of Revelation was called the persecuted church...Jesus had nothing bad to say about it. Why? I believe it was because there were only true believers in that church. Persecution had driven the false teachers, the hypocrites and the lukewarm out! The church was purified by persecution as are our own hearts when faced with suffering for Christ's sake. It is then that we are called to decide whom we will serve! Our choices speak volumes to the level of our faith.
You cannot outgive God. The more we give of ourselves, the more we receive...the more we have joy in this life and treasure stored up in the next.
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."--Jim Elliot
Love
Mom
