You Can Have It All

At least that’s what they want us to believe. It’s the American dream, right? You can have it all; whatever you want as long as you work hard and believe to achieve. The thing is we can’t. There is too high of a price to pay. Just ask Jesus. Do you recall how in Matthew 4, Jesus was led away by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil? That’s what it says. He was led there by the Spirit. I never noticed that before. God intended for Him to be tested.

Three times the devil tempted Jesus; each time more intense than the last. The final time …the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” [Matt. 4:8-9] The whole scene has always seemed ridiculous to me. Here Satan was offering Jesus everything He had created and already owned—as God. Yet, as the Son of Man he had nothing; not even a place to lay His head. The temptation was very real on a human level. In fact, later in Hebrews we read that “…we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. [Hebrews 4:15]

Just think: had Christ given into temptation there would have been no salvation. God’s perfect plan to save man would have been ruined. Jesus held out and in the end when He returned to God’s right hand He had everything Satan had once promised Him back again. Too often we take the temporal things that the devil offers us--the fast fortunes and miss out on God’s lasting blessings.  

The temptation is to want what everyone else has. We want the perfect wife, the perfect life. We dream of white picket fences, bright green lawns, and a big house for our flawless family. We work hard to pay for it all, but in the end, who really wins? We have sinned by coveting to keep up with the Joneses and completely lost focus. Pastor and author John Piper has said that God created us for His glory; essentially, we are here to tell His story. He has made history; now we are to act it out. Instead, we are more focused on our own thumbnail images instead of the big picture.

So, the question remains…can you have it all? The answer is no. We can have everything the world holds or we can have Jesus. We can’t have both. Matthew 6:24 reveals that we cannot love both God and money: "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. Obviously that does not mean that we cannot have anything. David rose from a shepherd boy with nothing to a king who had everything. Still, he was called a man after God’s own heart. The answer lies in what we want to perfect. What do you desire more? The pursuit of God or what the world holds? Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. [Matt. 6:19-21] Where is your heart? You can have it all in this life; or you can have it all in the next.