Lost Everything to Gain Everything!

When you have lost everything, where do you turn, what do you do, who will help and how will you go on?  This serious situation and feeling can be overwhelming. It is a good possibility that we have all lost something in our lives, it may be a dream we have had, a career, health, a spouse, money, a house etc.  Because of the impact it can have on our lives and how devastating it can be we draw to the conclusion that we have lost everything. In times like this it may be hard to do but we may need to step back from the circumstances and understand why we are feeling this way. 

In my own life there have been times of inability to keep a dream and vision active because everything that was going on around me. I felt like I was losing everything but something inside me still gave me hope that I in fact, I had not lost everything. Despite our feelings, there is something far greater that gives us hope and a sense that not everything is lost. The hope that is so evident is that there is a greater plan and purpose for our lives. We can’t just hold on to what is here and now, to the tangible, profitable, etc.  Jesus came to earth and He literally gave up His life to save us all!  The greatest gift that we can receive is to know Him. When we have put our trust in Him we have gained everything. 

“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ.” Philippians 3:8

My hope and prayer for you is that you don’t have to lose the important things in your life, but to understand this, however, sometimes God will allow these things to happen in our lives. I share with you that God loves us. He wants the best for each of us, but sometimes we need to go through difficult times to make better choices in life. 

I have a friend who let me know that he had trauma, tragedy and betrayal happen in his life and lost all his life savings before he realized that to gain everything was to have a relationship with his Heavenly Father. Paul talks about how he gave up his own ways and changed the way that he lived life.

“What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

Matthew 16:26 (NIV) 

Many of us love the world and everything in it, and we ignore the word of God and break his laws to satisfy our own wills.  Our souls are priceless. There is no amount of money, land or worldly possessions or status, which can ever measure up to or equal our soul. It is the MOST valuable part of our lives. Also, there is nothing we can give to God to get us into heaven. There is no buying back our souls. There is no purgatory. If we leave out Jesus on this side and fail to follow in His way, how will we enter heaven’s gates? We are physically present in this world—but we do not need to be part of its values and as believers, we should be set apart from the world. This is the meaning of being holy and living a holy, righteous life—to be set apart. 

Jesus’s prayed “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. John 17: 15- 19

Is it possible for us to lay our life at Jesus’s feet and allow him to take control of our lives even when life is hard and the most devastating things happen to us, when we feel like we have lost everything? Many times people will run and turn away from God but that is the time that it is best to turn to God, our creator, the Father who loves us and has given us hope far above what we can understand. If we must lose our lives for His sake, because of our faith in Him then so be it…. because we have so much more to gain in the hope that we have in Him! One day he will come for us all, will we be ready?

"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My (Jesus’s) sake and the gospel's will save it. Mark 8:35

Let’s live a life full of purpose, set apart and worthy of God’s eternal glory!