The Rich Young Ruler- Mark 10:17-31

"God show me what you want me to know;
Let me be the wise man and not the foolish man.
Allow me not to just read these words,
But give me a chance to put them into practice. Amen"

Over the past 18 days of this journey with Jesus I have really been challenged and have really made a conscience effort to change some things in my life. But by far this has been one of the hardest days of reading. It is always a gut check and I could not imagine what it was like for this young man. Obviously this man recognized Jesus as being special and as being the Son of God (as many of us claim the same thing). Then Jesus gives him the honor in front of everyone of being able to keep the ten commandments to the best of his ability and of course the young man graciously receives that honor. He says of course I have (as many of us claim the same thing). Here comes the hard part. Jesus goes right after this man's priorities. He says, and I'm paraphrasing, "Give up what is important to you and follow me." And the scripture says, "At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth."

This man recognized the power and majesty of God, just like most of us. This man knew that he was capable of being good, just like many of us. But when given the chance to be great the young man decided it was not worth the cost, just like many of us, myself very much included. There are times when I know what I should do but just like Paul at the end of Romans 7, I just don't do them and the things I don't want to do, those are the things I do.


Father I ask you to give me strength and courage to follow you with my whole heart. I pray that nothing gets in the way of my devotion to you and that I can seek you with no distractions. I love you and I know you want what is best for me. Thank you for Jesus.

RB

Day 18