Discipleship Dare Day Four - Sell Your Possessions

Isn’t it interesting how Christ kept qualifying how we are to follow Him? First was just the call to come away from our normal or old life and follow Him. Then he qualified it with “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” This speaks of real commitment, effort, humility, work and intentionality. Its not just a stroll through the park. He lets us know its going to cost us dearly. Then he says if we’re not willing to carry our cross, then we aren’t really his disciples. That is sobering.

In this verse Christ qualifies the call even further. “Go, sell you possessions and give to the poor.” A call to be other-centered instead of self-centered. The rich young ruler was not in love with God; he was in love with himself. He was devoted to satisfying the lust of the flesh just as most of us are to some extinct or another. Seeing this , Christ cut right to the chase. If the rich young man wouldn’t sell his possessions then he wouldn’t really follow Christ. Sadly, his possessions held him captive.

Unlike the rich young ruler, some of us try to follow Christ while dragging the possessions, distractions or weights with us. We want what Christ has to offer – abundant life, but we don’t want to pay the total cost. Surely we can have our cake and eat it too. How arrogant can we be?

Fortunately for us, Christ knows us all too well. In his patience he sends the Holy Spirit to convict us, His Word to correct us. In Hebrews 12:1 Paul tells us “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

The process of sanctification or cleansing is an ongoing process. He corrects or convicts and if we respond then and there, His grace gives us the enabling power to throw off the hindrance, the distractions and to follow him more fully.

We’re in this together. While we may be thinking we are following wholeheartedly, God knows and he will be faithful to show us the problem and give us the grace to die.

“Lord, give us dying grace that we may die to the call of self and fully follow you.”