Following the Lord to enjoy grace!

To leave all things behind and follow the Lord is not to pay a price; it is to enjoy the grace we have received. Do not think that you have sacrificed anything. What you sacrifice is just dung; it is vanity of vanities. Everything under the sun is vanity. Your education, position, and future are all vanity. Dung cannot be considered a price. To leave all things behind is to be unloaded and released. You have been under the heavy load of your position, wealth, and concern for your future. Thus, you need to be unloaded, and the way to be unloaded is to enjoy grace. Grace unloads us. To be unloaded through the enjoyment of grace, however, is not to pay a price. We are not here paying a price. Rather, we are enjoying liberation. Hallelujah, I have been liberated! I have been liberated from my relatives, fame, position, future, and everything; I am completely free. I am not paying a price—I am enjoying grace.

We all need to give up the commercial mentality. Some saints have said, “I have left everything for the church. I have suffered very much, and now I have nothing.” Whenever I have heard this kind of complaint, deep within me I said, “You cannot receive anything, because your giving up of all things and your suffering have not been done in the proper spirit. If you were in the right spirit, you would be thankful, joyful, and praise the Lord that you are no longer burdened.” If we have given up all things for the Lord in a proper spirit, we would say, “O Lord, I thank You that I am not bearing the load of position, ambition, or concern for the future. All the worldlings are under a heavy load. But, Lord, I praise You that I have been unloaded and liberated. I am not paying a price—I am daily enjoying grace. Lord, whatever You give me is not a reimbursement, but a further enjoyment of Yourself.”

Excerpt from Life-study of Matthew, msg. 54, p. 646