The rich man vs Zaccheaus

The rich man in the Bible was confident that his strict observance of the traditions would save him, but Jesus asked him to sell all his "possessions" (things that are surplus than what is needed to live) and give it to the poor, and thus he will have treasures in heaven. You know what, the rich man was not ready to part with his possessions, and thus cannot be saved. Today, we have so many "possessions" that are very close to our hearts and we are not ready to part with them. We want to hold on desperately to them. It could be our ego, pride, materialistic ambitions, religious superiority, spiritual pride, traditional reliance and so many other planks that keep us away from really being saved. Would we think about this for a moment, and analyze our lives?.

There was another man called Zacchaeus, who had the desire to follow Jesus, and more importantly was ready to give back all his "possessions" (what he unlawfully grabbed from them) to the poor. He was saved on that very day.

Are we ready to completely surrender "everything" to Jesus?

Being sincere in small things

We all want to accomplish big things in life. We desperately plan for many endeavors, to carve out an identity for ourselves through them. Though effort is a vital part of success, attitude is even important. The question to ask ourselves is this, would we show the same intensity and focus in the smaller things of our life as well?.

 Be it those menial errands that we are expected to do at our home, or those responsible tasks that we have been entrusted with at our workplace. It could be with things even as simple as paying our bills, managing our accounts, honoring a commitment with a friend. In all these things, we could be lethargic or procrastinate and both are equally bad. We should never take anything for granted and be thankful to God for giving it to us, when there are millions of others to take care of it.

Luke 16 : 10-12 goes like this "10 If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.
 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 
12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?"

Let us analyze our lives and see if we are faithful in whatever we do, and let us take sincere effort to fix those areas where we are not doing as our Lord wants us to do. Always remember that the first step needs to be taken in order to accomplish a journey of thousand miles.

The inward change and the outward radiance

A new year, and a new chance. It is a special feeling to cross from one year to another, and that too in the midst of all the chaos happening all over the world. The terrorist attacks, the accidents, the natural calamities and the dreaded diseases all around, makes us to wonder as to why God should protect us from all these, when thousands of people, better than us in all aspects are snapped away from this world in a whisker.

We will be the biggest fools if we think that we continue to live in this world because of our goodness and our intelligence. It is worthwhile to think about the long suffering nature of God, and His grace that has spared us from a possible end to our earthly life, and thus offering a hope to change for good.

Yes, it is another chance that God gives us in His sovereignty so that we draw closer to Him, and do start doing His will on this earth. We speak about changing the society and the culture, At times, we even go to the extent of fighting evil tooth for tooth, and fist for fist. We think we can change every single thing by our own strength and efforts without recognizing the implicit danger of us being swindled away from God, as we start giving more importance to our cause than for God.

The first and foremost transformation that should take place is inside us. We should be regenerated in our spirits. Assurance of salvation is still a question mark for many. Once we are transformed, our renewed nature will force our family members to shift their thinking towards us, and thereby they will be transformed. This then permeates to the society and out to everywhere. People will be attracted to Christ through our actions, and by the way we portray Christ through our personal, family and professional lives.

If you are a slacker in your job, though you speak hours about Christ, nobody would care to listen. If you are not in good terms with your family members, none of your neighbors would be interested in our preaching and our efforts to proclaim Christ. This new year, I would request each of you reading this to give real importance to the following three points.

1. Are you really saved? Try to answer this question from the bottom of your heart. If you still continue to hold on to those secret sins, then you need to repent and come back to God
2. How is your relationship with your spouse and other family members? Is there somebody that you have hurt so much, that you need to apologize to them, or is there someone who has hurt and you need to forgive them?
3. What is your attitude towards your work? Do you treat your work as a blessing from God, and do everything as if doing for Him?

God is as interested in even the smallest of the things in our life to see if we are faithful to Him. If we fail in these small things, we can be sure that God is not interested in giving us higher responsibilities whether in ministry or in the secular world. Will we think and change this year?