“What did Jesus have to say con­cern­ing this life?”

The great­est per­son of all time, Jesus Christ, was often poor and home­less. Yet, he pos­sessed true rich­es, for he knew the true way to live. Jesus said, ​“A man’s life does not con­sist in the abun­dance of his pos­ses­sions.” And to demon­strate this state­ment, he described a man who was total­ly con­sumed with acquir­ing things and con­sum­ing wealth. The man was prepar­ing for retire­ment, get­ting ready to enjoy his rich­es, when God spoke to him and said, ​“Fool, this very night you will lose your soul: then who will get what you’ve acquired for yourself?”

On anoth­er occa­sion, Jesus asked, ​“What does it prof­it a per­son to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” The answer, of course, is that it prof­its noth­ing, for the things of great­est val­ue can­not be bought or sold; they are spir­i­tu­al in nature. The per­son who has amassed only mate­r­i­al things will one day die and aban­don them. ​“For none of us brought any­thing into this world, and there is no doubt, we will take noth­ing out of it.”

Jesus invites every per­son to fol­low him. He calls those who are will­ing to invest their lives in that which nev­er los­es val­ue and receive that which mon­ey can­not buy-peace with God, eter­nal life, and true hap­pi­ness. Jesus him­self is the way to that peace. He gave his own life as the sac­ri­fice, pay­ing the price for our sin which had sep­a­rat­ed us from God. He said of him­self, ​“I am the way, the truth and the life.” He was not brag­ging, but sim­ply stat­ing an absolute fact. To per­son­al­ly believe in him, take him at his word to begin a whole new life. ​“To every­one who believes in him he gives the pow­er to become chil­dren of God.” Cen­turies ago, the prophet Isa­iah asked, ​“Why spend your mon­ey on that which does not sat­is­fy your deep­est hunger and work for that which does­n’t quench your thirst?” Isa­iah was look­ing ahead to the one who would sat­is­fy those desires, the promised Sav­iour of mankind. Today we look to Jesus as this promised one. He said ​“I am the bread of life.” He also said, ​“The per­son who comes to me will nev­er hunger and the one who believes in me will nev­er thirst.” In his heart and soul, he will expe­ri­ence ful­fill­ment like nev­er before. Jesus sat­is­fies spir­i­tu­al hunger and thirst. With him you can have the guar­an­tee of life in abun­dance. With­out him, though one may have great pos­ses­sions, there is no inner peace and contentment.

Jesus Christ actu­al­ly lived on this earth 2,000 years ago. Our cal­en­dar is dat­ed from the time he arrived. But Jesus is more than a dis­tant his­tor­i­cal fig­ure. Based on his own words and much evi­dence, he is very much alive and well; and he has promised to come again. Until the moment he does come, the invi­ta­tion stands-his invi­ta­tion to you to place your trust in him and receive from him the free gift of eter­nal life. Mil­lions around the world are mak­ing this choice every month. If you want to invite Jesus to be your Sav­iour and friend; if you want him to sat­is­fy the hunger of your heart, tell him so in a sim­ple prayer. This text will help you form a per­son­al prayer to God.