Leave All

Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.” Mark 10.28

When God’s call comes to us, we must learn to obey immediately. The apostles knew what it meant to get up, get going, and never go back. This is not easy but Christ’s grace is sufficient: He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12.9).

Christ Himself is the One who directly calls us to leave all to follow Him: So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall 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” (Mark 10.29–30). As such, He gives us abundant grace that makes obeying His commands possible.

The enemy will oppose anyone who says yes to Christ and His narrow, life-giving path: Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7.14). The temptations that he brings, however, are always balanced by the outlets that Christ provides to preserve us: No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10.13).

If you disagree and think that you’ve been dealt more than you can handle, be encouraged. It means that you are stronger than you think. Leaving all is difficult at first, but the more frequently we fall to our knees in surrender, the easier it becomes. Practice makes perfect. This is not to say, however, that pain is not involved. There is pain and there is hardship. Life is difficult. Life is tough. As Apostle Paul testifies, there are many trials and tribulations in store for those who have “set their faces to Jerusalem” (Luke 9.51—the place to which Christ willingly traveled to be crucified):

Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11.23-28

These sufferings are the direct result of living in the Spirit. But living in the Spirit also means enjoying the fruit of the Spirit: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law (Galatians 5.22–23).

When we come to the fountain of life, the fountain of Christ, we can trade in our depression, anxiety, stress, insecurity, self-loathing, lethargy, confusion and bitterness and get, in exchange, the peace, joy, and happiness that lifted the apostles high above the earthly realm, and propelled them across the face of the earth with the good news of Christ’s holy Resurrection and the eternal life that it opens up for humankind: These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15.11).

The Kingdom of God is distinct to and different from everything else in this world. Entrance into its bliss is predicated on the offering of sacrifice. In order to be received into the life of the Spirit and to begin trading with His fruit, we have to learn how to cut off, cut through and cancel out everything and anything that interferes with our relationship with Christ.

The more that we train ourselves to let go (of control), the more ready we will be for the self-surrendered work that Christ has stored up for us in His Kingdom: You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you (John 15.16).

Christ is lonely and in need of friends who can work with Him in the coming harvest: You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15.14–15). The more readily we respond to His call, the more suitable we will prove ourselves to be for this role and the more likely it is that we will be chosen.

Amen +

Author of You Are Mine and Apocalypse, Sister Anastasia writes on the role of the ancient, ascetic Church in a rapidly changing, modern world.

Photo by Paul Lichtblau on Unsplash