Gain What? Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Reading: Mark 8:36-37, 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

After renting apartments or houses for many years trying to save enough money to buy a house, the day finally came that we were able to buy our own house. It truly is amazing being able to pick out paint for your own home, pick out carpet designs and colors, knowing that every improvement, every change that you make is for your own home, not for someone else. With owning your own home comes great responsibility, yet great reward. Yet, the intriguing question is, do I really own my own house? I put a down payment on the house but the majority of the funds came from a bank. With the housing crisis that we have witnessed, it has become all too clear that, your name may be on the title, but who really owns it, as banks come in and reposes the house after payment is not able to be made? Men, the intriguing aspect of verse number 36, “to gain the whole world”, is God owns it all. God is the creator, the sustainer and the financier of the entire world. There is nothing here that we truly own. Yet, we go on and continue to kid ourselves in believing that we can gain stuff, because that’s all it is… is stuff! It seems even more absurd, doesn’t it, that a man would lose his soul for something that does not even truly belong to him, but rather is a loaner? Imagine a man who has no money in the bank and everything he owns is borrowed, you would think he has an absolute zero net worth; yet, in fact, the only thing that we can truly own, our true possessions, are the things that affect and impact the soul, which is eternal.

What “stuff” have you been trying to gain?


What have you been giving in exchange for your soul?


What will you do today to surrender your desire to get loaner “stuff” and work to gain eternal possessions that impact the soul?

REVIEW

What “stuff” did you surrender to God today and how did you do so?


How did this impact your perspective on what you worked to gain today?