Saying NO

 

In the past few weeks, demands on our time have delayed my time in devotions. Missing the normal schedule is something like missing a meal. I’m not starving but definitely hungry. I love bread but understand Jesus’ words:

“It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4:4)

Much of what we do here on earth is necessary. I must eat, sleep, and so on, but also must spend time with Jesus and His people. If I don’t, it is like missing too many meals. God asks:

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. (Isaiah 55:2)

This is metaphor. It means that if I spend my time and effort on the stuff that is not important to God and to my spiritual well-being, I will not have the satisfaction that He offers in Jesus Christ. His will is that I draw my supply of righteousness moment by moment from the Lord.

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, (1 Corinthians 1:30)

This means giving up, dying to self, saying no to all efforts to feed the hungers in my heart with anything other than what God supplies. Paul sets the example. He listed those things that may have once been important or could make him higher in the eyes of the world, and then he said:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8)

This was no easy decision, at least in his short-range experience. In gaining Christ, he went through trials that most people would totally avoid. Yet he also experienced life in Christ that he would have otherwise missed:

As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. (2 Corinthians 6:4–10)

God told the OT Levites: “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.” (Numbers 18:20) He would be their possession, their everything.

I’ve been standing on the edge of this, looking at it with understanding, singing words that desire it, yet not certain what it is like to “suffer the loss of all things” yet “possessing everything” in Christ.

PRAY: Jesus, clarify this. I know it is more about attitude than actually selling all and living on the street. I also know it is living without any concern about having stuff or going without. I also know that all my ‘stuff’ can be used to minister to others. You tell me if I need wisdom then just ask for it. I’m asking — and listening.