What is your one thing?

One day a rich young man approached Jesus with a question about how he could inherit eternal life. 
After Jesus had quizzed him about keeping the commandments and found that this guy was to all intents and purposes morally sound he said to him. "One thing you lack, go a sell all your possessions , give the proceeds to the poor and come and follow me." The young man went away very sad the scriptures tell us because he was very rich. 

The one thing Jesus asked of him he was not prepared to do even though it was within his personal power to do it. He could have followed the advice of Jesus, it was within his grasp and capability, but the cost was too high from his own point of view and he just could not face losing his money, even though he could have found life itself. He missed the opportunity to maximise his potential!

Its easy to make judgements about the young man but when we point the finger there are always three more fingers pointing back at us!...So what about me and you?

What is the one thing you lack?

For many of us there is one thing or one area in our lives that if we addressed the particular issue involved, it would dramatically and positively effect every other area in our lives, our relationships and our ability to follow Jesus more fully. You know what is it , we all know what it is , God knows what it is, the one thing that bugs each one of us. 

Sometimes the one thing changes in different seasons of our lives but often it is one area that keeps on bringing us into a kind of lack even though on the outside our lives seem pretty much together at least to people looking on. But on the inside we know differently , we know well the impact of secret sins, the lack of discipline, the eating disorder, the negative self esteem, the fear of rejection, the perfectionism that controls us, the grudge, the hurt, the questions ...........the list goes on.

We know what it is and we know what a positive difference it would make if we could let go of the one thing or maybe introduce one thing into our lifestyle. Despite our knowing we still walk away sadly because there is always a cost to letting go of something which we have been comfortable with but which is doing us harm, and  at the same time embracing something new and different even if it is something that will do us good. We fear change and the unknown and cling onto the familiar even while Jesus is saying to us "let go and let God". In allowing the "status quo" we too miss the opportunity to maximise our potential.

So three questions to consider

1. What is the one thing in your life that you either need to let go of or one thing that you need to embrace in order for your life to move towards all you could be?
2. What has stopped you addressing this issue until now?
3. When will you start to do something about it?

Remember you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!