SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
Giving
It To God
Read: Mark
10:17-22
[He] went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. —Mark 10:22
A hero to a generation
of people who grew up after World War II, Corrie ten Boom left a legacy of
godliness and wisdom. A victim of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, she
survived to tell her story of faith and dependence on God during horrendous
suffering.
“I have held many
things in my hands,” Corrie once said, “and I have lost them all; but whatever
I have placed in God’s hands, that, I still possess.”
Corrie was well
acquainted with loss. She lost family, possessions, and years of her life to
hateful people. Yet she learned to concentrate on what could be gained
spiritually and emotionally by putting everything in the hands of her heavenly
Father.
What does that mean to
us? What should we place in God’s hands for safekeeping? According to the story
of the rich young man in Mark 10, everything. He held abundance in his hands,
but when Jesus asked him to give it up, he refused. He kept his possessions and
he failed to follow Jesus—and as a result he “went away sorrowful” (v.22).
Like Corrie ten Boom,
we can find hope by putting everything in God’s hands and then trusting Him for
the outcome.
All to Jesus I
surrender,
All to Him I freely
give;
I will ever love and
trust Him,
In His presence daily
live. —Van de Venter
No
life is more secure than a life surrendered to God.
Insight
In Mark 10:1-16, Jesus
taught about the demands of discipleship, including the necessity for childlike
faith. Here in the encounter with a rich young man, Jesus spoke of the need to
love God totally—fully and unreservedly. This young leader lacked unrivaled
allegiance to God because he loved his earthly possessions more (v.22). In His
teaching, Jesus had warned, “No servant can serve two masters. You cannot serve
God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). The young man’s actions sadly illustrated this
principle. His story is also told in Matthew 19:16-22 and Luke 18:18-23. Paul
too warned of the subtle lure of material riches in 1 Timothy 6:17-19.
Source:
Our Daily Bread 2012
