If you’re going through a season of great loss, gaining Christ as your treasure will help move you forward and fill that hollow, empty space. Lay your losses at his feet today and let him heal your bruised heart.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada asking about the losses in your life.
And they come in many forms, don’t they? We can lose health, loved ones, financial security, valued relationships. When we lose things, or people; when we lose a spouse or lose the ability to walk; when God allows grief after grief, it’s possible to even lose faith. When God asks us to release our tight grip on precious things or people – sadness can overwhelm, leaving us to feel empty and hollow. But the Bible has a remedy. It gives us such great guidance and comfort; and it even shows us how to lighten the sadness of losing what is so precious.
And the answer is found in Philippians 3. Ok, let me set the scene. It’s a cold and cramped prison cell, dark and suffocating. But sitting there, probably in his own filth [this was how prisoners were treated back then]; sitting there, the Apostle Paul started taking inventory on his life. He looked back at his past. His reputation, his fame as a Pharisee, his title and birthright, his position as a teacher of the law, his standing in the community and his wealth. All these earthly privileges were gone; he had lost everything. Now, who could blame Paul if he collapsed into discouragement, looking back and longing for what once was. It’s the natural path most people take when there is no hope of regaining what was taken from you. But Paul does not sink into despair; in fact, he’s not even disappointed. Because after he takes inventory of all the many gains he left on the other side of that prison, this is what he writes in Philippians 3. He says, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”
Now that is astonishing. All of those former privileges; all the precious things that helped give shape to his former life; all of which he has gladly lost. Gladly! And he considers those things as “nothing” compared to the worth of knowing Christ. Jesus is now his treasure, and it is now his Savior who helps gives shape to Paul’s life. Now, I'm no Apostle Paul, but I resonate with his words in Philippians. I look back on my former life – you know, life on my feet – I look back on all the many things that gave shape to who I was: running and skipping, embracing a friend, peeling an orange, holding a soda, riding a horse, spiking a volleyball, and much more – all of it I have gladly lost so that I may gain Christ. He is now my treasure, and he is worth more to me than any amount of walking.
Now, if you are still in a season of great loss, I want to give you something to help move you forward; to gain Christ as your treasure. I want to give you Ephesians 1:17. It says there, “I keep asking the God of our Lord Jesus Christ…to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you will know him better.” Because friend as you know Christ better and better – through the Word, through worship and prayer – as you know Jesus better, in your eyes, he will increase in worth. Jesus will become your treasure. And please believe the lady in the wheelchair – knowing Christ intimately will fill that hollow, empty space. Bring your losses to him today and lay them at his feet. Let him heal your bruised heart with the profit, gain, and unquenchable hope of a relationship with God’s Son, who loves you.
© Joni and Friends