The Lottery

At last count the lottery was over a billion dollars.  Imagine that, if you won it, you could have anything you wanted.  What would get if you could have anything you wanted?

 

Now take it a step further, what would you ask for if God Himself told you that he would give you anything?  That is what happened with his disciples,

 

And in that day ye will ask me nothing: Verily, verily, I say to you, Whatever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 

Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Joh 16:23-24 

 

So now, think about this, what did the followers of Jesus ask?  Which of His disciples asked for wealth, or houses, or fame?  Which of His disciples died a normal death?  Which of His disciples was kept from temptation or persecution?  Paul wrote,

 

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. 

From the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one. 

Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 

In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 

In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 

Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 

Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is made to fall into sin, and I burn not? 

If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities. 

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. 

In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: 

And through a window in a basket I was let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.  

2Co 11:23-33 

 

What did these men (and women) of God ask for given the assurance that anything they asked they would receive?  What gave them life more than houses, fame, or money?  Paul wrote,

 

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 

Yes doubtless, and I count all things to be loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them to be dung, that I may win Christ, 

And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith: 

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death; 

If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Php 3:7-11 

 

When Jesus gives you life, it goes way beyond our worldly expectations.  The things we hunger for, the riches of our Messiah, are not of this world.  The world cannot understand this.

(A Adrian Bacon)