Jesus’ encounter with the rich young
ruler in the Bible is really dramatic and riddled with vital lessons we can
learn. The rich young ruler had all the money he desired. He also lived a godly
life right from childhood. He kept the Ten Commandments which were the criteria
for inheriting eternal life, yet he was not fulfilled.
In his quest for fulfillment and
assurance of eternal life, he ran to Jesus, knelt down and asked Jesus what he
must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him to keep the Ten Commandments.
He said he had been doing that right from his youth.
Jesus quickly realized that he lacked
ONE thing! Jesus instructed him to sell his property, give the proceeds to the
poor and then return to follow Him. The man became very sad and went away.
A godly man, the rich young ruler was
very much preoccupied with accumulation of wealth. There is nothing wrong with
that. Jesus didn’t condemn him for being rich. The truth Jesus sees about
riches is that most rich people find it difficult using their riches to better
the lot of the less privileged.
The sadness of the rich young ruler
after Jesus told him to go and sell his properties, donate the proceeds to the
poor and return to follow him buttresses this fact. The story of this rich
young ruler is a pointer to the fact that no amount of wealth we accumulate
will bring us happiness and fulfillment.
There are people who believe that what
matters most is accumulation of wealth. They believe if they get all the money
they want, they would be happy and fulfilled. They rich young ruler might have
thought that way too.
He thought if he could acquire all the
money he desired and kept the Ten Commandments, he would enjoy here on earth
and also enjoy eternal life in heaven.
The grab-grab mentality and the desire
to accumulate wealth can never earn us happiness and fulfillment. It is a big
deception to think that by accumulating all the wealth we can, we will be happy
and fulfilled.
The key to fulfillment and God’s favour
is service. This is the very key Jesus handed over to the rich young ruler, but
unfortunately, he failed to realize that this was the key he needed to unlock
the door to fulfillment and eternal life.
If your desire for riches is for purpose
of accumulating wealth and for your own benefit alone, you may never be happy
and fulfilled. Jesus wanted the best for the rich young ruler and so gave him
the best solution. He should sell his properties, use the proceeds to better
the lot of the poor and he should follow Him and become a dispenser of God’s
grace to mankind.
O yes, it is not a sin to be rich. You
should strive to be rich and get out of poverty fast, but IF YOU WANT
FULFILLMENT AND ETERNAL BLISS, YOU MUST NOT ONLY BE RICH AND GODLY, YOU MUST
ALSO BECOME A CHANNEL THROUGH WHICH THE GRACE, LOVE, MERCY AND POWER OF GOD
WILL FLOW CONSTANTLY TO HUMANITY.
Jesus was happy and fulfilled because he
served God and humanity to the fullest. He lived a selfless life. He went
around doing good, healing the sick and casting out devils from possessed
people. Even now, he brings life where there is death, light where there is
darkness, happiness where there is sadness and sorrow and brings deliverance to
captives.
The reason we are sad and unhappy is
that we are too much preoccupied with ourselves. Our self-centredness makes us
to lose the benefits of service.
The rich young ruler was too
self-centred. He didn’t have the interest of others at heart. As far as he had
more than enough to cater for himself and his family, and as far he was keeping
the Ten Commandments in order to inherit eternal life, it doesn’t matter if
others die in abject poverty and go to hell. But despite his self-centredness,
he was not happy and fulfilled.
No wonder, Jesus revealed to him why he
was not happy and fulfilled: “One thing thou lackest.” Dear reader, ANY TIME
YOU ARE BECOMING HAPPY ABOUT YOUR LIFE OR YOU ARE GETTING FRUSTRATED BECAUSE
THINGS ARE NOT WORKING WELL WITH YOU, GO OUT AND HELP OTHERS.
Never remain at the same spot whining
and complaining. You can do something to impact lives positively, even when
things are not going well with you. If you have some money, you can set up
charity organization to cater for motherless children or the less privileged.
A radio preacher said recently: “If God
is helping me to take care of my family and my family needs, what else do I
need other than to be a blessing to others?” There are many services you can
render to humanity which will bring you happiness and fulfillment.
You can encourage, motivate and inspire
others to live positive lifestyle. You can help someone do a job. And whenever
you do this, don’t expect anything in return. If the reward comes with it,
fine. But note that it is life that will richly reward you for your kind gestures.
More importantly, you will have joy and fulfillment.
Honest
and sincere service to mankind is what counts. You may not have anything, but
if you can just do some little things to make other people happy, to show
people the way, to help people solve their problems or to give people hope, you
will be happy and fulfilled.
Mother Teresa says: “Let us more and
more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace.
Money will come if we seek first the kingdom of God – the rest will be given.”
Dear reader, the word of inspiration and
assurance for you is this: money will come! That is certain! But you must first
obey the commandment of God. Don’t let your own money problem or poor condition
of living bar you from showing some acts of love, kindness, understanding and
peace to humanity. Service to humanity comes first. THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD IS:
GO AND SERVE HUMANITY AND YOU WILL NEVER LACK.
Although it may look as if it doesn’t
make sense, it works. It is the KEY OF GOD’S KINGDOM WHICH YOU CAN USE TO UNLOCK
THE DOOR TO ETERNAL ABUNDANCE. You should abandon your own problems and worries
and go out to render service to humanity in any way you can. Go and become a
solution to people’s problems.
The rich young ruler thought it won’t make
sense for him to abandon his wealth and worries to follow Jesus to dispense the
grace and love of God to humanity. O that the rich young ruler knew that Jesus
was handing him the very key to his glorious destiny.
Nothing brings happiness, fulfillment
and God’s favour than abandoning our own interest to protect the interest of
others. It is not the number of problems confronting us that are weighing us
down. It is our failure to obey kingdom principle that is robbing us of happiness,
fulfillment and God’s favour.
Jesus took the path of service and
became the master of the universe. He served God and mankind to the fullest. He
laid down His life for humanity and all powers on earth and in heaven were
given to Him by God.
Dear reader, do you need power for
victorious living? Then practice the kingdom principle. Go out of your way to
put smiles on the face of those who have none. Go out of your way to give
people hope. Let people know that they have hope for living. People should have
every reason to worship God in spirit and in truth. Give people hope, give
people inspiration.
The
Challenge in Service
One common problem you will always face
while rendering service to humanity is that some people will not appreciate
your effort. They will try to find one fault or the other with you. They will
question your motive behind the selfless service you are rendering to people. They will try to remind you of the “folly” of
your act of kindness.
As it were, kingdom principle will
always sound senseless to those who don’t understand. But every true child of
the kingdom knows that it works.
At the height of Jesus’ power and
exploits, the hypocritical religious leaders of his day falsely tried to link
His power source to Beelzebub. But He did not hesitate to make them see the
foolishness of their thinking.
Again, as He hung on the cross at
Calvary, one of the criminals that were crucified along with Him reviled Him:
“If you are the son of God, save yourself and save us also.” Other people made
some unkind remarks: “He saved others, but Himself He cannot save.”
Can you see that! Jesus was not
crucified because of any sin He committed. He was crucified for the sins of
mankind, yet some people never appreciated Him.
Great
Lessons in Bitter Remarks
It is interesting to note that no matter
how bitter a remark may be, there are always great lessons to learn from it.
For this reason, instead of boiling up whenever you hear a bitter remark launched
against you, calm down and pick out vital lessons from the remark.
Unknown to the criminal and those who
made the bitter remark against Him while on the cross, they were actually
pointing out a spiritual principle. The spiritual principle is this: if you
save others, you cannot save yourself; and if you save yourself, you cannot
save others.
Does it sound meaningful to you? Well,
let us look at it this way: supposing on hearing the unkind remark of the
criminal and the people, Jesus wielded His power and freed Himself and the
criminals from the cross, do you think He would have died to save the world?
If Jesus freed Himself from the cross,
He would not have redeemed mankind from the bondage of satan. His death and
resurrection is to reconcile mankind back to God.
The spiritual lesson here is this: if you become too self-centred, you can
never be relevant to God and to humanity. At best, you can only be useful
to yourself, but even at that, you are never happy and fulfilled. This is
because you can never be happy and fulfilled by being self-centred. The rich
young ruler was never happy and fulfilled. All he cared about was Himself.
People who are too preoccupied with
themselves are never happy people. The fact
is: it is in living for others that you are fulfilled. So, even when people
don’t appreciate what you are doing for humanity, don’t let that stop you from
doing good works. If you stop it, you won’t be able to help them.
The
Rewards
It is in helping others that you get
rewarded. In addition to happiness and fulfillment, you are also rewarded with
promotion, success, prosperity and God’s favour. Some people will even pray for
you to wax stronger and stronger.
The Book of Success, the Bible says:
“The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also
himself” (Proverbs 11:25). When you are practicing kingdom principles, you will
enjoy peace and fulfillment which some do not enjoy.
The secret to peace and fulfillment is
shifting your focus from self to others. The more you focus on yourself, the
more unhappy you become. This is because self-centredness doesn’t bring
happiness. Learn to consider the interest of others. Think of any way you can
be of benefit to humanity and concentrate on helping people solve their
problems.
Your focus should be on how you can
serve humanity in honesty and in sincerity. You will not experience real joy
and fulfillment until you do!
Till I come your way soon, go and take
the path of service, in honesty and sincerity and you will unlock the door of
eternal abundance even right here on the earth!
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