Matthew 19 Journal Entry

Matt 19 Blog entry

S:25 The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.26 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”


O: It seems that these two verses capture the gist of what Matthew is emphasizing for most of chapter 19 - the kind of people that can receive Jesus’s gift of salvation and follow His lead in their lives. In v13-15, as well as previous passages, he uses the image of children in their humility and faith.
Then from verse 16-26, Jesus tells a wealthy guy that to be saved he needed to sell everything he had and give to the poor. Does that mean we all have to do this? This would conflict with grace and receiving salvation as a gift in childlike faith.
But Jesus was able to see something in this guy’s heart, even though he seemed confident that he’d kept all the commandments. When Jesus brought up the guy’s money, it became apparent that he was devoted to money more than to following Jesus because he walked away from Jesus sad. This revealed that the guy had not really followed all the commandments. The first commandment says “have no other gods before me (the LORD)” and that wasn’t true for this guy.

A: Regardless of our intellect, talent, resources or accomplishments, we all have to return to that vulnerable place as a child where we have to ask for help and admit we can’t fix ourselves spiritually. We need to accept the gift that Jesus offers.
And like the wealthy guy, we all have “false gods” that threaten our devotion to Christ and what’s best for us. God has wired us to live a certain way in synch with him, and He knows that we will never find wholeness in our lives when something or someone else becomes our highest value and focus.

P: Lord, help me to the recognize the things in my life that keep me from being fully devoted to You and your ways. Help me lay down my pride and admit I can’t fix all this by myself. My soul needs a taste of your goodness to lay down the junk and trust that Your ways, no matter how good the other things look, are the path to wholeness and life.