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"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?"
(Mark 8:36)
This week, our devotions will focus on another life principle that Dr. Charles Stanley taught and lived by. His messages in this series have spoken profoundly to me. My goal is to capture his teaching, add my own insights, and present it to you for your spiritual blessing and inspiration. God is so good to us, and He is the giver of every good and perfect gift, according to James 1:17. We are to steward those blessings well and hold everything loosely. If we grip what we have too tightly, it can become a snare to us. The better approach is to hold all we have loosely, because whatever we hold too tightly, we lose every time. I am reminded of Corrie Ten Boom's advice when she said to hold everything loosely so that when God wants to take it, He does not have to pry it from our fists.
In Luke 12:13-21, Jesus taught the Parable of the Rich Fool. We will look at this parable this week in our devotions and draw instruction and wisdom from the teaching of our Lord.
"Then one from the crowd said to Him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.' But He said to him, 'Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?' And He said to them, 'Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.' Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: 'The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, "What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?" So he said, "I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.'" But God said to him, "Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?" So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.'"
What an incredibly powerful story Jesus told. This is a warning parable for all of us. The person who loves their life but ignores God and only thinks of themselves and not God is a fool. When Stanley made that statement, it made me think of a movie Ashley and I went to see entitled, Freud's Last Session. It is a movie with Anthony Hopkins playing the part of Sigmund Freud, a brilliant scientist who knew much about the human brain and mind yet had no knowledge or recognition of God. The movie portrays him to be most hateful of God. It always strikes me as strange when atheists demean and are angry at a God they say does not exist. The movie is a fictitious dialogue between Freud and C.S. Lewis, the prolific author and Christian apologist who seeks to give answers to Freud's oppositions to God.
The one who says, "I don't need God," is a fool and always loses in the end. For that individual, life is wrapped up in three people: me, myself, and I. To gain the world but lose one's soul is a terrible waste of one's life.
How are you doing when it comes to grasping things too tightly? Do you need to loosen your grip on the things of this world and instead grasp firmly the solid rock, Jesus Christ?
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