August 14, 2025

 

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Matt. 8:36 ESV)

 I read this quote today: “The real pain isn’t losing everything. It’s realizing you gave it away.”

 What do you have that is priceless? Your portfolio? Your house? Your Bible Characters bobblehead collection? Your family? Suppose the market crashed and money was worthless. An earthquake collapsed the house and your bobbleheads, and your family decided en masse to move to France to make cheese in Brie.

Unstable market, touchy tectonic plates, the personal (albeit weird) desires of others, and it’s all gone.

Devastating.

Now suppose it happened at your hand. You poured your life savings into that bobblehead stock, knowing its limited reach. Your spouse cracked the code on your phone and discovered your affair. Now they left, taking the kids and the family dog.

One stupid error (or several), and it’s all gone. No money. No home. No spouse/family. No dog. It’s your fault and you know it, and there’s nothing you can do. The pain is greater than you can bear.

Yet, though it looks hopeless, maybe there is some way to rectify things. Work harder, woo your spouse. It’ll be okay—though the dog might hold a grudge for a while. Whatever it takes, you’re willing to do it to have your life back.

But what if you lost your soul?

The most precious thing you will ever have.

Gone.

And the worst part is no one stole it, an accident didn’t kill it, carelessness didn’t allow it to starve to death. You forfeited it, right into the hands of the devil, the enemy of your soul.

And he doesn’t want to let it go. There is nothing you can do in yourself to make it right or win it back.

Nothing.

The truth is, if you don’t know Jesus as your Savior and Lord, your soul is already in the enemy’s hands. Only Jesus, Master of all that is, God of the universe and everything inside and outside of it, can snatch it back and keep it safe in His hands. Only He has that power.

 ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me,^[a] is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30)

 As humans, we make foolish mistakes, but you can’t allow your eternal destination to be one of them.

Your soul is the most precious thing you have. Don’t give it away.

 

 

⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust^[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

(Matt. 6:9-21)