Whom have I?

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

I love that passage from Psalm 73. It's the prayer of a true believer; someone who is fully devoted to Yahweh. It's the prayer of the person who has chosen to leave everything & follow the Lord, as the disciples did in Luke 5:11. It's the realization in the heart of the person who seeks God with their entire being that God is All in All. He is I AM. He is. And there is nothing that can take His rightful place in our hearts & in our lives. When God is our everything, & nothing else will do. No substitue can take His place. No other idol can compete. When God is our strength & our portion, then we have come to know Him. And, we are willing to follow Him.

The price of being a follower is steep. The way is narrow. Jesus once said to His disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Jesus' disciples had probably seen a man take up his cross, so they knew what it meant. When a man from one of their villages took up a cross & went off with a band of Roman soldiers, he was on a one way journey. He would not return. Taking up the cross meant the utmost in self-denial. Christ’s followers had to die to an old way of life. And Luke makes the point that it is not something that can be finished & gotten out of the way, but that it must be done daily.

I pray that today that you & I can live for God, for His fame & for His glory. Then we too can say, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:25-26