“Then Peter began to say unto Him, ‘Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee…'” — Mark 10:28
Meditating on today’s devotional from My Utmost for His Highest, I am reminded that abandonment is not for what I’ll get out of it. Wretches that we are, we should persistently check our motives—even about why we want God! So we can be free from something? Or to be made holy? Chambers says these are the **results** of being right with God, not the **reasons.** “It is like saying – “No, Lord, I don’t want Thee, I want myself; but I want myself clean… I want to be put in Thy show room…” He calls it “miserable commercial self-interest”!
In a world that seems to be spinning out of control, these days we all juggle relationships, religion, and responsibilities. So I dare say true abandonment is intermittent, at best. Even the most mature people face a daily barrage of distress, direction, and distraction. Abandonment is expensive, and takes some wherewithal! After Peter said, “We have left all,” Jesus promised great reward. But He was clear about significant outlay at the outset. After Peter finished his spiel, talking it up how he’d left everything, Jesus put him back in his place: “…many who are first will be last…”
Matthew Henry reminds us that “we stand in nearer relation to Christ than we do to any creature; and therefore to keep in with him, we must be content to break with all the world…”
Oswald ends with Luke 14:10, as will I: “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”
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