In the basic makeup of a marriage the way God ordained it to function, it takes two people continually sacrificing things in their life that keeps them from becoming “one”.  Once that desire to no longer sacrifice things we cherish, that can cause division, we can no longer walk together in the unity and harmony we were made to…

I say that to help us understand the issue between the rich young ruler and Jesus, was about cherishing anything more than following Jesus.  Being a rich young ruler made it obvious possessions would be the thing he defined himself by.  Whereas you and I may not be a ruler, but still cherish things that keep us from following Jesus…

If you ever read the passage of this young man, he was very ambitious and proud of all the commandments he kept.  So much so, that he thought to ask Jesus what was left to inherit eternal life?  But Jesus delivers a blow that he couldn’t handle.  Jesus tells him to give up what he has been defining himself by as a rich young ruler, and “find himself” in following Him.  But he couldn’t do it…

This young man’s success and possessions were his identity, so instead of sacrificing himself to follow Jesus, he thought he could add eternal life to his identity.  So now he can have it all!  Which is exactly what Jesus won’t have from us.  That we can establish our own identity and just add on Jesus, religion, or heaven to our list of idols!  Just like we cannot add different girlfriends and boyfriends within our marriage, and think that it will flourish!

It is always about faithfulness with Jesus, and when it really is for us, we will fight to follow Him no matter what we have to give up.  That is why we need real faith, because it takes real power from grace to give up what we don’t want to!

In His Love, Ld