Which Would You Really Rather Have?

Daily Devotions with Pastor Chuck

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May we not forget that,

“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31 – NASB)

The Scripture text is Jesus speaking, and He is speaking about choices,

“For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:25-26 – NASB)

Which would you really rather have? That is a good and proper question that each one of us has to ask of ourselves. Would you really, and I want to emphasize the word “really,” . . . . . would you really rather have Jesus or would you really rather have this “world” and the things of this “world?” As we go about a day, doing what we do, going where we go, seeking what we seek, making time for what we make time for, It is an unavoidable question we face.

The old gospel hymn comes to mind when I am faced with this question:

“I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands.
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand”

Would you really “rather have Jesus than silver or gold?” Would you really “rather be His than have riches untold?” Would you really “rather have Jesus than houses or lands?” Would you really “rather be led by” Him rather than by the flesh and its desire for this “world” and the enticements of its god? (I John 5:19)

How easily we can get caught up in the “world” and its trappings! How easily we can wander away from the One we profess to love and turn from Him and seek after the self-satisfying things of this “world.”

Note in the hymn as it points out a preference to “have Jesus . . . rather . . . than silver and gold,” or “riches untold,” or “houses and lands.” Jesus warned, in the parable of the sower, how people are taken away from the gospel message of life by “the deceitfulness of riches.” He warned how these “riches . . . choke the word” (Matthew 13:22). And oh how sobering “the word” is, “for what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul?” Can one purchase with “silver and gold” his “soul? . . . “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

It is a most honest question to ask ourselves daily . . . Which would we really rather have? Would we really “rather have Jesus . . .”

“Than to be the king of a vast domain or be held in sin’s dread sway.”

The call is clear . . .

“And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me'” (Luke 9:23 – NASB)

Yes Father . . .