Leave to Receive

Mark 10:29-31

29 Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,
30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

You may be asked to leave where you live.  

You may have to leave your possessions.

You may have a different relationship with your parents. 

The perfect family you wanted to have might change.  

You may have to leave your livelihood or inheritance.  

Why?

For His sake, his message.

What you receive is a new sense of what home is.  A new family.  A new inheritance.  A hundredfold means they are better.  

When God asks us to leave it is to give us more and better than we ever had. 

Some you may receive here, but persecutions will come.  When we are following the Lord fully we can expect an attack.  Yet as he promises, we receive far more.  Our blessings are sure and may come in forms we don't expect because He is the gift-giver.  

Ultimately the greatest thing is to receive eternal life.  The pinnacle of God's grace on us to live forever, with Him in the place even now He is preparing for us.  

So if you are last here you will be first someday.  To receive is to leave behind what you can do for yourself.  God's economy is backward, against the flesh, against the world's value systems...will you leave if He calls you?  Will you be able to step out in confidence knowing that He is going to bring so much more into your life than you can dare to believe? 

For His sake.  For His message.  Whose kingdom do you seek?  His or your own?