All tagged treasure
What does it mean to give ourselves to God? Are we prepared to become fully consecrated? These are questions for us to concentrate on this morning. Presenting ourselves to God and becoming spiritually focused rather than worldly centered. When we do this, our lives are changed and we become an example to others of the perfect will of God... we will reflect those attributes which set us apart as holy and righteous before a world of sin and compromise.
Living right every day; this is our thought for today. Do we live consistently righteously in our everyday life? Are those things we read in scripture and pray about in our prayers true, and evident in our daily lives? The world we live in is full of temptation and wickedness, and it can lure us into situations that can challenge our faith as we try to make our way through life. We can find ourselves living a double life.
Are we placing our focus on the eternal, or are we concentrating our efforts on those things that are fleeting, and that will fall away? Is our pride today in the possessions of this world, at the demise of our very soul that lives forever? This is the thought on which I ask that we dwell today. I am seeking to redirect my own attention towards God, the most important focus of life; and my faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Will you join me in this quest and contemplation?
In this world that is parched by sin we once longed to quench our thirst with a refreshing drink of living water. We thirsted for God and Jesus Christ in this wilderness of human suffering that included both our body that had been made like leather in the heat, and our soul that had become hardened like a sponge in a dry land. However, now we have found the well, and know where our help comes from, our help comes from the Lord. We sought, and now walk, refreshed by His grace. From the well of Christ we draw our cool drink, and fill our skins with life… living water. Yet having found Him, do we horde Him, or do we mercifully offer the water of life we have found to others who still thirst?
God gives us blessings, treasures, that we don’t see coming, and He does so to show us that he is God, and that He loves us, but what do we do with that treasure once it is received? How much do we value it when the package arrives and it has our name on it? How do we react to the old and new gifts God gives us?
How do we judge the success of our lives? If we are like the secular people who surround us then it would be by the money we have accumulated, the size of our homes, and perhaps the number of children we have, or the power we wield over those who we employee. Do we as Christians covet what those who live only in the world call wealth? Are we working long hours to live a few short years in luxury, only to lose it all in the moment of our death?
Is Jesus Christ like a treasure that you have discovered in your life, and did you give up everything else you once valued so that in overwhelming joy you could abide with Him? No? Well, once you have uncovered Jesus, and witnessed the value of His righteousness, holiness, and grace, there is nothing you own that you wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice for Him. Perhaps you have merely discovered the locked chest, but have never opened it to see the actual treasure inside, and then covered it back up. Are you afraid of what opening that chest will awaken in you, or of what it will require of you?