The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys the field.   Matthew 13:44 HCSB

If I had a box containing ten million dollars and I told you that I would sell it to you for ten thousand dollars, would you buy it?  Now perhaps you are thinking that you would love to buy it, of course, but you don’t have ten thousand dollars.  Would you sell your home or your car to buy that box of money?  I mean you could buy yourself a nice new home and a nice new car with ten million dollars, right?  So what if you had to sell everything you own to scrounge up this ten thousand dollars?  Think about it, everything you own is worth a measly ten thousand dollars, but you can sell it and buy ten million dollars.  Now I am hoping that you say, “Of course, I would sell everything”.  It’s a no brainer, right?

Sadly, while it is a no brainer, many of us hold on to things that keep us from the kingdom of heaven.  I have been guilty of this very thing.  About ten years ago, I returned to my home church.  This was the church where I had spent my childhood.  At that time, my husband and I had not been dating very long and he began attending church with me.   I had moved in with my then boyfriend because I was afraid to get married again.  I had been hurt in marriage and didn’t want to be hurt again.  Now that is silly when you think about it because we can be hurt in a relationship whether we are married or not.  But I thought that I kept some type of invisible shield around me as long as I didn’t sign on the dotted line.  Anyway, we began attending church.  We got involved in church. We started attending Sunday School.  We went to services Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night. We went to church workdays and contributed financially.  But we were living in sin.  Now as I began developing a closer and closer relationship with my savior, Jesus Christ, I began being convicted about our living arrangement.  But I had lots of excuses, my main one was that I could not afford to live alone and keep my home.  He had proposed to me long before we moved in together, but I was afraid to get married again.  Our relationship was rocky from the start.  Once we got involved in church, God began convicting us and our life was in chaos. In desperation I cried out to God one morning at around 10am. I begged him to help me. I told him that I just didn’t understand, I had been trying to follow Him and all these things were going wrong in my life.  I blamed my boyfriend and asked Him to change him.  God spoke to me as clearly as anyone standing next to me has ever spoken to me.  He told me that once I let go of my sin, that things would work out us. He told me to simply trust Him, and I did.  About eight hours later, God destroyed our relationship.  Since we weren’t willing to let it go, God destroyed it.  Now before you start thinking, “Wow, this is a terrible story.”  Let me explain. God destroyed it to build it back stronger.  I didn’t know that at the time and was broken hearted, but the next day God convinced me to trust Him.  God worked everything out for me within 48 hours.  Wow, right?

My boyfriend and I started over as friends and began dating again.  We were married a short time later.  We’ve both learned that when you put God first, and are willing to let go of everything for Him, that He will bless you more than you can imagine. God has blessed us and takes such good care of us.

The parable that Jesus tells in our scripture passage explains what we must do to become Christians.  We must be willing to give it all up in order to get the treasure that God provides in the kingdom of Heaven.  You see whatever it is that we give up, we get so much more in return.

So today, I encourage you to look at your life.  Is there something that you need to give up for God?  Is there some little trinket that you are holding on to that just may be keeping you from the kingdom of heaven?  Whatever it is, my friend, I assure you it is not worth it.  Turn to God today and trust Him with all you have.  Be willing to let go of anything that keeps you from this awesome treasure.

Have a great day!