He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it (Matt. 10:39).
This statement by our Savior is paradoxical and depends on the double sense attached to the word "life"--the natural and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal. People who make this natural life and the things of time first will lose this life as well as the eternal. Those who sacrifice this life for the higher will have both.
It is difficult at times to give up things that we can see for things that we cannot see, but we must remember that "the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). Moses was able to see the invisible, and he esteemed "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward" (Heb. 11:26). He made today secondary to tomorrow, time subservient to eternity.
Matthew left his counting table to follow Jesus. Peter and Andrew, James and John, left their fishing fleet to follow Christ. "He...that forsaketh not all that he hath...cannot be my disciple," said Jesus (Luke 14:33). Even life itself, with all its plans and hopes, must be given to Him to guide and to use.
The Indian maharaja, Dhuleep Singh, was presented to Queen Victoria just after the English had captured the great Koh-i-noor diamond. The gem was placed in his hand, and he held it for some time. Realizing that now it belonged to another by right of conquest, he said, "Madam, it gives me pleasure to place in your hands, as my sovereign, this treasure of my ancestors."
Have we made our great surrender to Christ? Have we placed in His hands that which we have inherited from our ancestors--the life that is His by right of the conquest of Calvary's cross?
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee" (Ps. 63:3).
This statement by our Savior is paradoxical and depends on the double sense attached to the word "life"--the natural and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal. People who make this natural life and the things of time first will lose this life as well as the eternal. Those who sacrifice this life for the higher will have both.
It is difficult at times to give up things that we can see for things that we cannot see, but we must remember that "the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). Moses was able to see the invisible, and he esteemed "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward" (Heb. 11:26). He made today secondary to tomorrow, time subservient to eternity.
Matthew left his counting table to follow Jesus. Peter and Andrew, James and John, left their fishing fleet to follow Christ. "He...that forsaketh not all that he hath...cannot be my disciple," said Jesus (Luke 14:33). Even life itself, with all its plans and hopes, must be given to Him to guide and to use.
The Indian maharaja, Dhuleep Singh, was presented to Queen Victoria just after the English had captured the great Koh-i-noor diamond. The gem was placed in his hand, and he held it for some time. Realizing that now it belonged to another by right of conquest, he said, "Madam, it gives me pleasure to place in your hands, as my sovereign, this treasure of my ancestors."
Have we made our great surrender to Christ? Have we placed in His hands that which we have inherited from our ancestors--the life that is His by right of the conquest of Calvary's cross?
MEDITATION PRAYER: "Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee" (Ps. 63:3).
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