In my quiet time I was thinking about the rich young ruler. He appears in three of the four Gospels. In Luke 18:18-30, the rich young man comes to Jesus and asks what must he do to obtain eternal life. Jesus names off some of the ten commandments and the young man says done, done and done–he had kept these since he was a boy. Then Jesus said, “there is one thing you still lack”. Jesus told the man to sell everything he had and give it to the poor and then come follow Him. Luke says the man was very sad. Matthew and Mark say the man went away sad.

God showed me that I needed to let go of the linger fear and self-confidence. I’ll start with the fact that God has removed a tremendous amount of fear and faulty self-worth junk from my life. Still it too often rears its ugly head.  It’s just the “one thing you still lack”. In the end it’s a faith thing. It’s not a self-confidence issue. It’s a God-confidence issue. Do I trust God when it’s something that He’s called me to do that I feel ill equipped to do? Am I more afraid of failing than disobeying God? What if I look foolish?

Such a foolish thought. God has never left me in the scary moments. I had this same fearfulness the first time I led a step study (surely no one will show up. Who would want to come to a step study led by me?) I had this same fearfulness the first time I gave my testimony. (I will mess up or freeze up–it had happened before). And He was there! So why would He fail me in the next thing He asks of me. Or you. Or us as a ministry. Or us as His Church.

I’m so glad that God uses flawed people and even nations. Jonah didn’t want an entire nation to be saved and was quite ticked off when it was. Abraham had a fear problem that translated to a truth problem (because sometimes we lie to avoid trouble). Then there was Peter who was one minute walking on water and the next minute he was telling Jesus he wasn’t going to cross and the next minute he was on the rock and the next minute he was chopping off someone’s ear and the next minute he was telling Jesus that no he would never deny him and then the next he was preaching the gospel with power. One day Saul was persecuting followers of Christ and the Paul is evangelizing the gentiles.   Jesus was always with them.

I’ll go back to what I started with what is the one thing you still lack.  It may not be something that is keeping you out of the right relationship with God, although it could be that. It may be a thing that is keeping you from being everything God created you to be. It may be something that is keeping you from doing what God has called you to do. Finding out what that thing is maybe like peeling back an onion. God may have delivered you from drugs and alcohol and sexual integrity but there may be profanity, anger, or negativity that is your one more thing. Just like the skit guys chiseling skit, the things that God is trying to remove from your life may be painful and you may not want to give them up at all. But like a sculptor God is trying to remove things from us so that the finished sculpture looks more and more like Jesus every day.

You may want to share it with your sponsor or accountability team.

I will leave you with this prayer:

Blessed are you, Lord God King of the universe, that created us, gave your son for us, and lives inside of us. Lord, do whatever it takes to transform us into the people that you have called us to be. Give us the strength and the grace to endure the chiseling process. In your Son’s great Name Amen.

Be Blessed.