Redemption

When we look at the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-26, we meet a man who has a desire to follow Jesus. When the requirement to be a disciple is to leave all he owns behind, he isn't willing to make the sacrifice. Having it all is not having redemption. Having it all, but refusing to lay it down, is the greatest crisis of faith. Surrender is the way to freedom, and in that freedom, God is able to write His story of redemption in our lives. 

Hear this loud and clear, redemption is not tied to the circumstances of your story. It is tied to your relationship with the author of that story. God can redeem the loss that you have experienced even if you never hold a child of your own. When God redeems, nothing exterior is needed to complete it. He is the completion. He is the Redeemer and the redemption.

God does not want you to be unhappy. He wants a beautiful, whole, fulfilled, and redeemed life in which you are completely aligned with His will. He has such amazing plans for you, just as He had for the rich young man in this story. What a pity that we never read another story about this man, about the things he did for God’s kingdom or the incredible relationship he shared with Jesus. He stood in front of God incarnate and walked away.

We have the same choice in front of us, and I am praying wholeheartedly for you as you make your decision. As for me, I don’t want to be that rich young man. I want to be in the story God is writing. I want to slowly uncurl my fingers from the desires I have for myself, and open my hands filled with all the broken pieces. 

I want to place those pieces at the feet of Jesus and stand in awe of what He creates with them. I want to be surprised by the depth of His redemption, by the ways that He is working things together for good, whether small and intimate, or vast and inconceivable. But most of all, I want Him. More than anything else, I choose Him, and as a result of that relationship, I trust Him to make all things new in my life. 

As we pray, He sees the fulfillment of that prayer already accomplished. As we experience loss, He sees the redemption of that loss already complete. As we question, He sees the answers written into the future. And that is why we can trust Him with today, whatever it may bring. Because He is today, tomorrow, and forever.