A Pause to Ponder God's Word
"Let Go and Follow"

I once read about a unique way trappers catch monkeys in the wild. The trapper hollows out a gourd with a long narrow neck. Then he places fruit in the bottom of the gourd and stakesit to the ground. When a monkey comes and finds the fruit, he reaches down into the gourd andgrasps the fruit. The monkey is unable to pull his hand out of the gourd with the fist clenched around fruit . The trapper casually walks out of his hiding place and catches the monkey, who could have easily run away if he had been willing to open his hand to slide it out.

A young man of great wealth once came to Jesus asking what must do to have eternal life. Jesus told Him, "Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me." The account goes on to tell us that "when the man heard this, he became sad, for he was a man of great wealth." (Luke 18:22b-23) The wealth did not have a hold
on him. It was he who placed the great value upon his wealth. It was he who was unwilling to open his hand so that he could follow Jesus. He walk away sorrowful, for he knew the temporalwealth of this world could not really satisfy, but he wouldn't take the risk to go God's way. He tightened his fist around his great wealth and walk away poor and lost.

We often speak about the hold that things have upon us, when in reality it is we who have hold of things. It is not that things have such great value. It is that we place great value on them.  Like the owner of the first print "Superman" comic book; when ask what made his book worth three million dollars he simply replied, "The fact that someone will pay me that much for it."

Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:21)  Our heart follows our value system, and we follow our heart. That is why we cannot serve two masters. Once we place high value on something, it becomes our master. Jesus is the only one deserving of our allegiance, of our love. He alone is worthy of Lordship. Yet things can so easily become the object of our love. We hold on clenched fisted trying desperately to serve both God and mammon, but it doesn't work. As long as we have our fist tightly clenched around the things we value, we are not free to follow Jesus.

Earl Lee in his book "The Cycle of Victorious Living," rightly instructs us to release everything into God's hands "palms down." Only then we can joyously follow the Savior with hands free to do as He bids and to hug Him when we see Him face to face.

Keep Close To Jesus
Pastor Gerry


A Pause To Ponder God's Word is written and distributed by Gerald Whetstone, Ordained Elder and teacher in the Church of the Nazarene. These devotionals may be transmitted, duplicated, used in part or in entirety without permission for nonprofit purposes only. Responses welcome. To Subscribe Click Here.
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