The Pearl of Great Price

There has been much talk about Grace and so there should be. Receiving grace is the beginning of everything in Jesus. Somehow its free… somehow it costs everything. It is another one of God’s great paradoxes. This passage tells the whole story and yet I can’t quite touch all that it is saying to me.

The first parable makes great sense. “The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.” Its about the huge value and cost of the Kingdom! He wants me to give Him not just a belief that He is, but all that I am and all that I have.

That’s not easy to do, but I understand it. There should be a cost for anything of value and I am willing. There’s something contagious, electrifying about selling out for Jesus!

Its the second of these parables that’s hard for me to accept. It describes MY great value and cost. A price Jesus joyfully paid to acquire ME… the pearl of great price. “The Kingdom of God 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.”

Jesus, paid the same price for ME as he asks me to pay… everything. All that He had He gave up to claim me as his prized possession.

I could cry out “but God I’m a fake, a phony. You’ve been robbed.” But ultimately believing God, is believing that His evaluation of my worth is truth. That has been a big step of faith for me. To believe I am all God says I am and not what I say that I am.

You, too, are the pearl of GREAT price. Believe it! He has great plans for your life! Give Him all that you are. Give Him all that you have and see what He will do! May God fill you up with the knowledge of Him,

In Him,

Ruth Ann