Too Rich To Follow Him

In the forests of Ecuador I soon learned that there were journeys I could not make if I wanted to carry baggage.  Traveling narrow, muddy, and often steep trails on foot was impossible if I was heavily loaded.

             

So it is with the spiritual journey.  We cannot make it if we insist on taking along everything we think indispensable.  A rich young man was attracted to Jesus and contemplated joining His company, but Jesus spoke plainly of the necessary condition:  Sell all you have first.

             

If he had not had much, perhaps he would have laid it down readily.  But he was too rich to follow Jesus.  He turned away, sorrowful.

             
We may be willing to part with almost everything God is asking us to relinquish, but perhaps we are clutching one thing tightly—“all but this, Lord.”  “Lay it down,”  Jesus says.  “Let it go.”  If we refuse, too rich to follow Him, we have chosen a greater poverty in the end.