Sometimes we can get so caught up in our lives we forget to put what comes first, God or ourselves. Reading the scripture of the rich young man who thought he had everything he needed in life by just following the law of Moses would allow him to be right with God, but in reality Jesus wasn't just looking for a man who does what's right, but a man willing to forsake what he loves most to Him to follow Him. In Matthew 19 we see Jesus giving the rich man a test asking him to forsake everything he had to follow Him. In other words he was asking him, "are you willing to surrender that which you hold on to so dearly to me, your possessions, things you love the most in order to follow me?". But the man loved his possessions and himself more than God and was not willing to give it up which is why he left Jesus's sight grieved. In the message translation, it gives a real clear description of how this young man felt in his heart where it states:
"And so, crestfallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn’t bear to let go."
The word crestfallen in this passage means discouraged. Now we can ask ourselves, why was this man so discouraged? He was speaking face to face with God himself in flesh yet he wasn't willing to give up certain things in his life he deemed more important than to serve Him. In our times, we see this happening often. Many see the cost to follow Christ, but yet they see what they have in their lives and think to themselves, "do I really want to give this up to follow after God?". "I'm doing what seems to be right, isn't tat enough?". What people tend to forget is, that isn't enough.
It's sad to see when God calls us into a life of truth and meaning and all he asks is our full attention and our heart and to give up that which we treasure most, yet we're not willing to give up these things in our lives.
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