Day 4: Leaving Everything

First Saturday in Lent

Scripture: Mark 10:28-31

^NRS Mark 10:28 Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you." ²⁹ Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, ³⁰ who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age-- houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions-- and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first."

Devotional: When Peter made the simple choice to follow Jesus, only God expected this fisherman to do great things once he was made new. Today we are confronted with the question of, “Why did Peter make the choice?” His exchange with the Rabbi reveals a hint as to his motivation. Jesus called the disciples to follow Him and fish for people. It was not an overt call to salvation, so when Jesus started teaching about eternal life and salvation, the disciples got distressed. Bold and blunt Peter protested, “Lord, we have left everything to follow You.” Jesus calls us to leave our path for His, to be set apart, transformed, and made new, but all of that comes with the cost. Peter understood that cost as leaving everything and was willing to pay the price in anticipation of a worldly reward. Peter’s real question to Jesus was, “What’s in it for us? Did we misunderstand? Is suffering all we get in this life?” Jesus doesn’t take offense. He knows that we are motivated by reward. He just wants us to understand that there are greater rewards than mere worldly ones. He teaches that following Him will lead to hundredfold rewards that accompany suffering and persecution, but more importantly there will also be eternal life. He concludes His teaching with the unsettling statement that, “Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” He wanted the disciples and all of us to understand that following Him will have different rewards and outcomes from anything we could ever expect. We cannot measure discipleship by the means of the world like wealth, power, or position. It is a balance of blessing and cost, but the One who is aware of all our sacrifices can be trusted to always stand on our behalf. When we choose to follow, we will experience hundredfold increases that we cannot imagine. We will experience persecution, but we will never endure it alone. We are guaranteed eternal life. Christ is with us. He has gone before us. He prepares a way for us into eternity. We will experience persecution and unimaginable reward, but the assurance of eternal salvation is our first and greatest reward.

Prayer: Lord, fill our hearts today with assurance that we are Your children who have the promised inheritance of eternal life. Strengthen us with this truth so that we might endure the journey in ways that always reveal Your grace and unconditional love, Amen.

Song of praise:      Great is Thy Faithfulness performed by Chris Rice

                                                

Spiritual discipline challenge: Today we focus on the spiritual discipline of simplicity. In following Christ we make a decision to turn from our old ways to something new, let us find something today that we can give up to simplify our lives knowing that God is faithful to meet all our needs.