It’s an old question: If you woke up to a house fire and had time to grab just one possession, what would you grab? An album? A family Bible? A mother’s wedding band?

It’s an intriguing question, but unless you arrive at an answer before the fire — and place the chosen treasure next to your bed — it won’t do you much good to ponder it. Surrounded by smoke and flames, people don’t have the time or presence of mind to make those kinds of decisions.

Life can throw all kinds of emergencies at us, and sometimes, when the heat is on, we may feel tempted to let go of our faith to escape with some other treasure, our status among our peers, perhaps, or maybe our careers, or even our lives. We need to make up our minds before we’re engulfed in a crisis that come what may, the one thing we will hang onto is our relationship with Jesus. We need to ask ourselves now whether our salvation really is our most precious treasure. In fact, Jesus demands it to be our most precious treasure (Matt. 10:37-38).

If it’s not, it’s not because God is not good enough to earn that status. Many Christians who have given their everything to God — who have truly been willing to give Him control of their lives — have found a peace and a satisfaction no earthly possession, accomplishment or relationship could bring. I pray that I will find that place with God. I want to know Him so well and depend on Him so entirely that I would never, ever turn from Him, no matter what else I might have to abandon.

[M]any of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:66-69, ESV

Your Turn: Can you look back on a time when God taught you to value Him more? If you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about it.