Matthew 19:23-30,  Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Yes.  I tell you that it will be very hard of a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Furthermore, I tell you that it  is easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”  When the disciples heard this they were utterly amazed. “Then who,”  they asked, “can be saved?”  Jesus looked at them and said, “Humanly, this is impossible; but with God everything is possible.”  Peter replied, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.  So what will we have?”  Jesus said to them, “Yes.  I tell you that in the regenerated world, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel.  Everyone who has left homes, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times more, and he will obtain eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”

I think these verses have been a bit misinterpreted over the years just due to a lack of understanding of what Jesus was talking about.  I know a lot of people who have been blessed with a lot of money and they love God and are serving Him!  Their wealth has not kept them from getting saved, so what exactly does this mean?  (This is why I am determined to not to just read my Bible but I want to fully understand the context and history from the time so I can understand it better). 

As you probably already know in Bible times a lot of the cities had walls and gates.  Jerusalem had them.  Since the walls and gates were there to protect the city the gates were closed at night so enemies couldn’t get in.  The gates were guarded and you had to be let in.  The gates had a smaller door to let people in so the whole gate didn’t need to be opened and that door was the “eye of the needle”.  So, if a traveler arrived with camels,  in order to get into the city, the camel had to be totally unloaded in order to get through that little door.  It couldn’t carry anything and make it in.  Jesus was explaining that this young man’s wealth was more important to him than God.  It wasn’t that God didn’t want him to have money, it was that God wants us to go to Him bringing everything and everyone in our lives, not discarding them but putting Him first!  He just wants to be first!  He wants you to unload at the door.  He wants to be first place in your heart.  He wants to know that you trust Him with it all.   Believe me, I have prayed for my children before and have laid out my agenda for what I didn’t want God to do because I didn’t want them to experience any pain “like that” in their life, so if He could just work around those things and yet do a mighty work in their lives that would be great!  Hmmmm…. Somehow that wasn’t quite what He was looking for from me!  Where’s the trust?  He wants your whole heart!  These things are things we typically have to grow into.  He knows we aren’t perfect and that is why He is continually working in us to help us grow in our walk with Him!  When He was talking about the young rich man he was explaining that it’s all about trust.  Salvation is trusting God, regardless of how much money you have or don’t have it is putting your faith and trust in Him ~ giving Him your life.  He wasn’t trying to make salvation anything other than what it is ~ a gift.  

So, I would love to encourage you today to give it all to Him.  Challenge yourself to learn to pray saying, “Whatever it takes Lord, I trust you!”  He loves you and He loves your children even more than you do.  It is a lie from satan that if you give something or someone to Him that something bad will happen.  God isn’t like that and He knows what is best for you and for those you love. Trust Him and you find that truly His best is yet to come!

Quote:  “Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.”  ~ Voltaire