A few years ago at a luncheon in a certain U.S. city, a respected millionaire got up to testify. His main point: “I owe it all to the Lord.” During his speech, he shared his secret: “When I was a young man, a call was made for me to surrender all. I was young and poor, but I surrendered everything I had to Jesus. It was after that that God began to bless me. Now I’m a wealthy man.” At that point, a voice from the back of the room shouted., “I challenge you to do it again.” As you can imagine, the challenge was not accepted.

It can be easy to surrender everything when you are young and don’t have much. But once you get older, and you own a house and two cars and a condo on the beach – that’s a different story. You have responsibilities: a family to take care of, employees who rely on you! You can’t give all that up for the Gospel.

But the truth is that our wealth isn’t our own, or even our family’s – everything we have belongs to God the Father. Jesus even said that unless we give up everything we love to Him, including our families and even our own bodies, we cannot be His disciples. Sacrifice is never easy, but God calls us to use the resources He has entrusted to us to spread His love to those around us. In doing that, we will be building treasure in heaven, and reaching this world for Christ.           

This is Luis Palau.