…This man at that moment, wanted so little to do with Jesus, being terrified at being arrested with Jesus, that he was willing to flee naked, and suffer that embarrassment instead of remaining with Jesus. At this moment, in the garden, no one wanted to stay with Jesus, for any reason. Judas wanted his money. Peter wanted violence. The young man wanted freedom.
What do you want? What do you want in place of Jesus? Or will you stay?
That question must be settled in your mind and heart. Not anything but Jesus; Jesus instead of anything. God will add to you many provisions, even an abundance, provided you count abundance with proper math, biblical math.
Psalm 4:7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
Biblical math uses a different method that scientific math. Scientific math means you count. If you have more stuffs, more things, more toys, more anything, the better. Biblical math gives a higher weight to certain things. Joy in your heart from God is worth more than abounding grain and wine. Having an abundance of food is nice. God’s joy is better.
So, God will grant you some of the stuff of the world, to be enjoyed and uses rightly in relationship to God and his people, and the poor of the world. So, this is why we always ought to take our food and our gifts from God with thanksgiving. So we always take it with a heart that recognizes the giver of the gift. Nevertheless, your conviction, my conviction, our persuasion, our certainty, must be “Jesus instead of anything.” If you lost everything, would you still take Jesus?
