Why should I give up all I own to follow Jesus, when all blessings are from The Lord?

Question

Is that not a contradiction?

Answer 1

Not really! You don't really own anything. What you think you have is only on loan to you by a merciful God. It all belongs to Him. He just lets you use it for a little while. Someday, when you die, He'll loan it to someone else. He just wants you to be willing to give up all and follow Him. That is what He did for you even to die for you. You should be willing to do the same for Him. That is all He asks. That is certainly not asking too much.
Jesus Christ Is the Only Way To Heaven!

In The Holy Bible, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. He meant “I am the only way to God the Father and to heaven”, “I am the only truth that you need to know.” and “I am the only spiritual life available to mankind.” In other words, “I am the only true and living God.”
All other so-called gods are false gods. They are not real. They do not exist. No other so-called god has the power to forgive, cleanse and remove all your sins from you to get you to heaven. They don't even claim to.
I pray you will believe this and accept the fact that you are a sinner needing to be saved from your sins (“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Romans 3:23, The Holy Bible.) and accept the fact that the blood Jesus Christ shed for you at Calvary is the only way you can have your sins forgiven, cleansed and removed and is the only way you can get to heaven. I pray you will acknowledge that you are a sinner and ask Jesus Christ to forgive, cleanse and remove all you sins and accept Him into your heart/life to live for Him the rest of your life. (“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” John 1:12, in the Holy Bible.) That is what it means to be born again. (“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 in The Holy Bible.) Salvation is a free gift. You cannot work for it. You cannot be good enough to earn it. You must, by faith, receive it as a free gift. (“8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.”) Ephesians 2:8-9.
God loves you and it is not His will that you perish in hell.
(“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” II Peter 3:9 in The Holy bible.)
This is my prayer for you

Answer 2

The Bible condemns greed—but it doesn't condemn financial success, if it is gained legitimately and with the right motives.

In fact, some of the greatest men in the Old Testament—men like Abraham and Job—were also people of great wealth, and their wealth was seen as a sign of God's blessing. Does that mean God wants all of us to be wealthy? No, it doesn't; after all, Jesus didn't have any material wealth, and the Bible teaches that wealth often causes people to turn away from God. Jesus warned, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money" (Matthew 6:24).

Remember: Everything you have—including your ability to be successful in business—is a gift from God. But why did He give these gifts to you? To put it another way, what difference is there between you and someone else who is successful but isn't a Christian?

The difference is this: Everything you have is God's, and should be used for His glory. All around you are people who need Christ and His love. What are you doing with your money to help them find Him? Ask God to give you a generous spirit. The Bible says, "Each man should give ... not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Answer 3

If you only count money and possessions as blessings, (and I'm not saying that you personally do) I guess it could sound like a contradiction to you. The Lord asks us to trust him and have faith in him. If your material things are what you value the most, perhaps you should part with some of them to help people who don't know where their next meal is coming from. When you have this kind of faith- like when you tithe to the church to help others- God increases your blessings. God blesses us so we can bless others.

Answer 4

If you look at it from a very literal perspective, it most DEFINITELY is. However, Jesus is saying that nothing should be put before your service to the Kingdom of God. Yes all blessings come from God, but we don't worship God just so that he'll give us stuff. In my opinion, the WILLINGNESS to commit to total sacrifice in service of the Lord is what he was referring to, not so much giving everything away like a crazy person and be left penniless and in the cold.

Answer 5

The man was wanting to be like Jesus and gain the same level of spirituality as Jesus had. In order to do that Jesus told him he would have to sell all that he owned. In other words he would have to give up all his attachments to this world and just seek Truth. There is nothing wrong with owning things, this world was set up so that you could experience it. If you want to follow the path of Jesus though, if you desire enlightenment, you must rid yourself of desire. If you do not desire enlightenment then that is fine as well, own as much as you wish.

Attachment is the source of all suffering.
-Buddha.

The Master leads by
emptying people's minds,
filling their bellies,
weakening their ambitions,
and making them become strong.
Preferring simplicity and freedom from desires,
avoiding the pitfalls of knowledge and wrong action.
-Tao Te Ching

Knowledge shows you the contradiction, wisdom teaches you the meaning of it.

Answer 6

Many people will say that you have to be willing to give up everything, but that is a cop out - especially for those who take the Bible literally (like Falwell, Pat Robertson, etc. who are quite wealthy). Jesus quite explicitly tells the rich young ruler in Luke to give up all that he had. Later, when instructing the disciples, he says that those who want to follow him should give up all their possessions, or they cannot follow him. And in Acts, the church is instructed to give all that they own to the leaders of the church so that everyone could share everything in common. It's interesting to me that many of the literal-historical readers of the Bible often soften these commands, but staunchly hold to the admonishments against homosexuals, women speaking in church, or that Jesus is the only way to salvation. There seems to be some arbitrariness in that implementation of the Biblical message.

Answer 7

Material possessions are not the same as blessings. Also the church only ask of you to give up 10%. Anyway, I haven't figured out a way to take it with me yet. So technically when you die you do give away everything if you want to or not. The Bible is very confusing and open to your own interpretation. Don't take what someone else says to the be the only truths. come up with your own.

Answer 8

The things that they are saying that you should give up are material things while the blessings from the lord is everlasting one. All you need in life is to believe in God and not material things. You know when you believe in God, you don't have to border yourself about anything because he is always there for you.

Answer 9

Because you tend to think that the blessings of the Lord are due to your own intelligence and hard work. Sometimes you have to start over to get the right perspective.

Answer 10

What ever you are willing to walk away from determines what you will walk into.Giving something up is not forever it is just a test to see where your heart really is?? this doesn't mean giving away your stuff,it only means saying to God that even if I didn't have all this I still have faith in you and what I have I'm willing to let you work through it.