The Pearl of Great Value

August 12, 2014

The Pearl of Great Value

“God’s will is for you to be holy”

1 Thessalonians 4:3a

To be holy is to be in harmony with God. Harmony with God is summarized by God himself: “the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8). Our experience in life reveals that this understanding of harmony with God can be easily stated, but it is much harder to realize in our day-to-day lives. To walk in harmony with God requires an unwavering dedication to spiritual growth.

A few days ago, I mentioned entering into a time of prayer by first rehearsing your core faith values. How do you articulate the longing of your heart for God? One of the passages of scripture that captivates my heart is the parable of the pearl of great value. At first, I stumbled over this parable because I couldn’t imagine placing myself in the position of the merchant: “When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it!” (Matthew 13:46). The parable only captivated me when I realized that Jesus was talking about God. God is the merchant in the parable! You and I are the pearl. God discovered me and you, and valued us so highly that He gave his one and only Son, so that we will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) God gave all He had. He gave Himself for our salvation.

Understanding the parable, first from the perspective of God as the merchant, enables me to draw on it for the inspiration for an unwavering dedication to spiritual growth. My goal is to become like the pearl merchant, and be willing to submit everything in my life to God as I enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The economy of the Kingdom of Heaven does not measure everything I have submitted to God, or count that which remains un-yielded to God. The Kingdom’s economy looks at our heart. Even though we have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) countless times, God sees how we keep getting up and moving toward the pearl of great value: God’s unfailing love for us.  

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.