The Pearl of Great Price

    I just finished the book And the Bride Wore White by Dannah Gresh. It is so good and I think every high school girl ever should read it! Honestly, I think the age on this book stretches beyond high school as well. This book is about purity, relationships, and our relationship with Christ.

 
  My favorite chapter in the book was chapter eleven, "Purity Love Its Creator At Any Cost." This chapter was based on Matthew 13:45-26 which talks about the pearl of great price. Dannah starts out the chapter talking about her relationship with Bob Gresh, who is now her husband. But back in college, when they were dating, she admitted to making some bad choices. She decided that they needed to break their relationship and wait for God's timing. The first time that I read that chapter, I thought, "It's not like they were doing anything really sinful! It was just little mistakes..they could change that! It's not like they really had to break up!" But, that was incorrect thinking on my part. Her decision was the right one. She knew that she needed to let go of Bob for God. "I was not telling him that we could not go on like this. I was not suggesting to him that we could change it. I was telling him we could not go on." As she left Bob after telling him what they needed to do, she was unsure if the door to this relationship would ever be opened again. But she had to give up Bob for God. She had to do what was right.
   
  Luke 14:33 says "Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." That's Christ talking. If we are not willing to sacrifice everything we have for Christ, than we cannot follow Him. This means even the things that we hold so close to us--our friends, our relationships, our family, our future--everything. It's a hard call, is it not? It means completely surrendering all that we have. But that's where trusting God steps in. God's ways are so much better than our ways, and if we just give Him all we have, than He can really work in our lives and carry out His plan.

  We have a call in this life to pursue the pearl of great price--which is Christ. Matthew 13:45-46 says "The kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." Our call is to pursue the great Pearl that is worth so much, and yet we decide to dodge that and focus on pursuing cheap, fake pearls. Those pearls could be giving ourselves away in little ways, trying to carry out our plan, and chasing our fleshly desires.

  Part of the chapter talks about Bob Gresh's journal entry one time. He says,
    "1.There is a pearl of great price.
     2. We are to seek it.
     3. We are commanded to purchase it.
     4. It costs us everything.
     5. It is worth the price.
   I must come to the point where I stop the payments on the fake pearls in my life and start making the payment on the real pearl. God costs everything. He is worth the price."


    Bob and Dannah realized that if they weren't able to stop pursuing all the fake pearls in their life, than they couldn't experience the goodness of the real one. They sacrificed their treasured relationship because it was getting in the way of their relationship with God. They were trading God's plan for their own, and they realized that's not how it could be. Until Dannah came to a point where she really understood that God was sovereign and Jesus was enough, she was determined not to be in a relationship.

   So what's in your life that you don't really want to give up for Christ? What's in your life that you are pursing more than Christ? I know there's stuff in my life...really ridiculous stuff--myself, my appearance, and just my own plans. But Christ stooped to the level of insignificant man when He came to earth to be born in a stall, mocked, beaten, and crucified. He suffered the separation of Him and His Father, yet it was all because of love. Christ gave us everything. How could we give Him less than anything.

  The bottom line is this: We need to give up everything for Christ. We need to be willing to sacrifice anything if it's just a vain pursuit of fake pearls, and taking the place of pursuing the real one. Like Dannah, if we are in relationships or friendships that take the place of Christ in our hearts, or even being elevated more than Christ, than it needs to be cut off. Is it painful? Yes. Does it hurt? Yes. But is it necessary? Yes. Pursuing Christ costs us everything, but the price is worth it.