God is All You Have

“If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple” -Luke 14:26 NLT

I don’t think it means that we are to literally “hate” our loved ones. Christ should be the most important thing in our lives even to the point that if everything else (including friends and family) were gone, we’d be ok.

But didn’t God create us to also need people in our lives?

God designed us to enjoy and contribute to relationships with other people. In the very beginning, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” -Genesis 2:18 even though man was in the Garden with God himself. And ever since, we’ve had a deep need to be known, understood, and accepted by at least one other person. We need others.

At the same time, there is the example of Job. He lost everything including his family. All he knew fell apart. He was devastated, he was sad—but yet, he still knew God was in control and when push comes to shove, God must come first. He must be above all these things. Suffering and sorrow are a part of life. Knowing this, however, doesn’t make it any easier to cope when you find yourself in the midst of the deepest, darkest trials of faith.

Don’t you wish Christianity could make you exempt from suffering?

We have our faith tested along the way—to demonstrate if we really trust Christ. We have to be ready to stand alone, for the sake of Christ. Jesus himself was deserted by his disciples when he asked them to pray with him the night before he was arrested and crucified. But he continued even when he had to proceed alone. People you trust will disappoint you, and when that happens, you have to be faithful to Christ, whether or not anyone else supports you. As the disciple Peter said, when those around him demanded that he stop telling others about Jesus, “We must obey God rather than men” -Acts 5:29

Know that God does care for you and He knows your pain. He will never leave you. -Romans 8:37-39 And if a time comes where your faith is tested don’t let other people come between you and the One who loves you more than they ever could.

If God is All You Have, You are blessed. Because He is All You Need.