Following God When it’s Hard
It’s very easy to be a Christian when everything is going well. It’s much harder when you have to sacrifice something for God, or go through a hard time for Him. There are numerous examples in the Bible of people who followed God until it got hard. People like Peter, Jonah, and the rich young ruler spring to mind quickly. The example we will look at is in Matthew 19:17, where a rich young ruler asks Jesus how to have eternal life.
The first thing that Jesus asks after the rich man asks Him his question was whether or not he has followed the commandments. The man responds that he has followed all of them from his youth, and he wanted to know what else he had to do. Jesus tells him that he needs to give up all his possessions, give them to the poor, and follow Jesus. The rich man then leaves in tears.
The rich man had it all. He had money, possessions, and to top it all off he was young as well. He had followed all the commandments from his youth. On the surface, he seemed like his life was made. But, he knew that he had a problem. He didn’t have assurance of eternal life, so he sought out the answer, but when he got his answer, he couldn’t do what he needed to do.
He believed everything that he needed to, had everything that he needed for this life, and followed all the laws, but he wouldn’t give God his all when it required him to sacrifice. He was willing to follow God as long as it didn’t require him to give up his possessions that he loved. The Bible says that he went away in great sorrow, because he loved his possessions so much. This passage isn’t saying that we as Christians need to give up everything that we own, but rather we need to be willing to if God leads us to.
How about us? Do we follow Jesus only when it is easy, and doesn’t require us to do anything hard or dangerous? Or are we willing to sacrifice everything we have or have planned in order to follow Jesus? Following God’s will can require great sacrifices, but in the end, it’s worth it.
