Sunday morning church service, the band is playing, the congregation is singing praises to the Lord, and I join in; but while my lips are singing the words, my mind is somewhere else. Then, I hear the lyrics to the song we’re singing, “Jesus, everything I’ve lost, I have found in you. When I finally reach the end, I’ll say, you are worth it all.” I stop and wonder – do I actually mean what I’m singing?
In Mark chapter 8, Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34).
Jesus is not just talking about denying ourselves of superficial wants and desires. He’s talking about everything. He’s saying we must forsake everything but him in order to follow him. In comparison to following him, nothing else matters.
So, I have to ask, is Christ worth it all, as the song says? Is he worth giving up everything for the sake of following him?
Now, you may say – oh Christ didn’t mean we have to give up EVERYTHING. God wants us to be happy. Well… yes and no.
God wants us to be holy. He wants us to have rich, deep, abiding joy; not just temporary happiness. He wants us to have peace, which comes through trusting in him, no matter the circumstances. No, this does not mean we will lose everything we have during our earthly lives. But, it also doesn’t mean that we won’t. Am I making sense?
Just look at the Old Testament example of Job. He was a wealthy man who had it all and loved God with all his heart. Then, God allowed it to be taken away. God restored Job in the end and he was stronger for his suffering, but he still suffered.
Even Christ’s beloved disciples left their homes and families behind to follow him. They were persecuted. Many became martyrs. They lost everything in this world. Christ warned them this would happen, saying, “They will pull you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God” (John 16:2). Yet, they still followed him.
While I have experienced hard things in my life, I don’t believe I’ve ever truly experienced the level of loss Christ is talking about here. I’ve never been persecuted like the disciples and many modern day Christians. I’ve lost family members, but have never lost a child, parent, or spouse, as some of my friends and family have. I’m terrified that going through something like that would break me.
I’ve spent months living in a fog of anxiety and doubt, worrying that something terrible could happen. I’ve struggled to trust God, thinking, if he is so good, how could he allow anything bad to happen to those who love him? In this mindset, I’ve wondered if it really is worth it to follow a God like this.
Despite my faithlessness, God has been faithful. Through seeking wise counsel and spending time in prayer and reading God’s Word, I realized something that I’ve known since I was young, but had somehow forgotten. This is that Christ gave up everything for us.
Jesus, the Son of God had a position more exalted than any of us could ever imagine. He sat at God’s right hand. He experienced none of the pain we consider normal in our messy, human lives.
Yet, he loved us so much that he threw it all away to become one of us, God in the flesh, to live as we live, except without sinning, and to die one of the most gruesome deaths imaginable. Then, three days later, he rose again, conquering death and sin forever.
For centuries, the Israelites, God’s chosen people, rejected God over and over. We do the same today. Even so, Christ sacrificed everything because he knew it was the only way for us to be with him, once and for all.
For this reason, at the end of time, all creation will sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing, and “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:12, 13).
It blows my mind to think of the depth of God’s love for me in allowing his only Son to die as the ultimate sacrifice just so my sins could be washed away. It makes me wonder how I could ever doubt his goodness.
I am also comforted to know that he has a plan for my life; that he sees everything and knows everything, and has already made a way for me, even when all around me is dark. As Jesus says in John 16:33, “In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” This means when trouble comes, all I have to do is trust in him and keep going.
Knowing all this, I think I can confidently answer the question I asked at the beginning of the post: “Is Christ worth it all – to me?” Yes, he is. Because I was worth it all to him.
