Jesus tells us in Matthew 19:29 that they that leave all things will receive a hundredfold in return. “And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life”. But nothing is given to those who desire this hundredfold reward, for they have not given away everything. They still have their desire to receive the hundredfold reward. Our Lord promises a hundredfold only to those who would give up everything. If you seek something in God—whether it is wisdom, recognition, worship or whatever it may be—you may find it, but you will not find God. You will instead find wisdom, understanding and inwardness—all of which I praise, though they do not endure. When you search for nothing, however, you find God and find all things in him, for he endures. Therefore, you should seek nothing save for God’s will alone—neither understanding, nor knowledge, nor inwardness, nor worship, nor rest.

If you would pray for anything, you need only pray for God’s will, and nothing more, and in this you will have all.                                

                                                                         The Kingdom of Heaven Within You
                                                                         Meister Johann Eckhart  (1260-1328)
                                                                         Dominican preacher, theologian and mystic

Have you ever thought about—Why you go to church—Why you read the bible—Why you pray—What you are after—What you hope to gain or achieve through your belief in God?

I hadn’t until I read the excerpt above from The Kingdom of Heaven Within You. To me it said that if we’re seeking something from God no matter how admirable and noble and even spiritual what we’re looking for might be; the most we can hope to gain is that thing that we’re looking for. But if we search for nothing except for whatever God wants to give us, we will gain everything, because only then will we have really given up everything and put God first.

So what was I searching for? After thinking about it for a while, I realized I wasn’t really sure. And I decided to try and find out. All I had to do was go a while not asking for stuff from God and see what if anything happened. I didn’t know if I could trust myself to separate what I could ask for from what I couldn’t, so I just decided to go cold turkey and not ask for anything. How hard could that be? I rarely asked for much anyway. And since Lent was right around the corner, I made the resolution to give up asking for stuff for Lent. This is bound to be a more worthwhile thing to sacrifice than something like chocolate or coffee or TV.

I learned a lot in the next 40 days—about God and about myself. I learned that I ask God for a whole lot more than I ever thought—in fact, I ask for stuff all the time. Good stuff, needed stuff, maybe even God stuff, but it was still stuff. I learned that it is really, really difficult not to ask God for things. I failed many times in my 40 days. And I learned that when you’re doing something difficult, 40 days is a long, long time.

But this exercise taught me something extremely valuable. I began to understand what Meister Johann Eckhart was trying to get across to us and in fact, what all the saints try to get across to us. “It’s all about God and not about Me”. Whenever I am asking God for anything, at the root of my request, it always boils down to being about me. When I was able to stop asking God for stuff, and I was forced to find new and different things and ways to talk to Him about besides what I thought He should do, and I got out of my unconscious and ingrained patterns of thinking, it became more about Him and less about me. I became more open in our conversations even though I thought I was open already. Our relationship became deeper, more personal and intimate. Because we talked about different things and in different ways, I heard different answers to different questions.

I received a hundred times more.

After my 40 days I can now answer those questions: Why I go to church—Why I read the bible—Why I pray—What am I after—What I hope to get or achieve through my belief in God?

Maybe you’re like me—maybe you don’t know the answers to these questions either. I encourage you to give it a try. Put God first in your life. Go without asking for anything except for His will and see what you receive. It’s a little scary at first. After all, how will God manage? How will He know what to do—How will He know who to bless and who to heal and who to help and who to forgive without us there directing Him by asking Him to do this and that?

Try it and find out for yourself if Matthew 19:29 is true. If you’re not up to 40 days, go for 20 or even just a week—but give it a try.

And when you’re done, consider coming back here and sharing a comment on what you received.