What Good Is It?

Mark 8:36

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

Ambition can take you on a trip, fill your trunk with all kinds of treasure, but not give you enough gas to make it back home. Fame is a beast that only devours even as it looks like you're achieving while dying. So many people go chasing fame and success without being properly grounded in God. Somewhere along the way the emptiness of the soul begins to gnaw at your heart as you look around at the shallowness of relationships and the waste of a life undeveloped only to ask yourself, ‘What good is it?’

Success is not the problem. Having no relationship with Jesus is the issue. Our pursuit of success must never take the place of our pursuit of God. What good is a successful career if you lose your family? What good is an affair if you lose your marriage and your good name? What good is money if you lose yourself? What good is fame if you die from an overdose trying to self-medicate your emptiness? Paul asked what do you have to show for what you are now ashamed of?

Nothing can fill the God-sized hole we have in our hearts but God. Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly. How do we get it without losing our souls?

1. Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Only what we do for Christ is going to last. So whatever we do we should always ask ourselves, will God get Glory out of this? If he doesn’t we should be doing it. Matthew 6:33

2. Humble yourself and he will exalt you. We have to get low to go higher. Despise not small beginnings. James 4:10

3. Make sure your ways are pleasing to God because he said he would give us the desires of our hearts when our ways are pleasing to him. Psalm 145:19

4. There is only one way to God and that is through Jesus. Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father except they come through Jesus. John 14:6

Dear God,

Lead me in the way of abundant life, even if it means I do less and get less. Jesus you are more than enough for me. No fame or fortune, nor riches untold. I’d rather have Jesus than silver and gold. Keep my soul God, keep my soul!

In Jesus name,

Amen