Passage of the Day: Matthew 6: 19 … Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
My Journal for Today: If you’ve been with me here, we’ve looked at this passage now from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount for several days in our look at stewardship of God-given resources. And in this passage, our Lord gives His followers (and that is us) God’s instruction on how to handle what we receive from Him – i.e., His providence.
In the times Jesus made this exhortation, worldly wealth was measured in commodities like those mentioned by Jesus: garments or fabrics, grain, and precious metals. Here Jesus warns that garments can be eaten by moths, … grain can be devoured by vermin, … and gold can be stolen by thieves. And of course, He is saying that nothing of this world is permanent/lasting. And even if one could protect their “stuff,” they would have to leave them behind at death.
That’s why our Lord goes on in the very next sentence (i.e., Matt. 6: 20) to tell us that the only absolutely permanent treasures we can lay up for ourselves are those things which will last in eternity; … and those, of course, are the souls and testimonies of the Saints.
Therefore, in his devotional entry from Strength for Today on this date, John MacArthur bluntly asks any believer, “What about you? Are you putting your treasures in a safe place?” And I would go on to ask myself (and you, by extension), “What am I [are we] doing to invest in eternity? How am I [are you] using what God has blessed me [us] with for His glory [i.e., … our time … our talents … our treasures]?”
Ouch! That hurts a bit! I’m growing into this; but my stewardship still needs attention. How about you?
My Prayer Today: Help me to be a good steward of Your bounty, Lord! Amen
Showing posts with label prudence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prudence. Show all posts
Friday, August 12, 2011
Friday, August 05, 2011
August 5, 2011 … Loving Money Focuses on the Temporal
Passage of the Day: 1st Timothy 6: 7 … 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 6 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
My Journal for Today: You’ve heard it before … “You can’t take it with you!”
It’s a simple lesson, for sure; so this devotional entry will be short and sweet [well, maybe not-so-sweet]. But I’m almost sure that we’ve all experienced the desire to go for the most we can get in the here-and-now. Money-love very easily seduces non-believers and Christians alike into temporal concerns; and in doing so, believers can lose focus on our trust in God.
Today’s verse is a terse warning from Paul to Timothy (and, of course to all Christians), telling us that our concerns need to be on the eternal rather than on the temporal. And God’s word is replete with restatements of this concern (see Prov. 27: 24, Job 1: 21, and Eccl. 5: 15) as well as the direct teachings of Jesus (Mark 8: 26, Matt. 6: 19 – 21, and Luke 12: 15 – 21). And in this latter passage from Christ, the parable of the rich young fool, Jesus very pointedly teaches His followers that WE cannot know when we will be taken from this life and into our eternity. Therefore, He exhorts His disciples to cultivate and be ever vigilant with our attitude of trust in God … and to be in total surrender to God’s will and His providence.
God provides the temporal so that we can prepare for the eternal. In Christ we have our ALL-IN-ALL; and in Him we have our forever. [Oooh! That has to be a God-thought; because I made that up; and I’m not smart enough to think that one up!] … We really need say little else to emphasize this point.
My Prayer Today: Help me to trust You, Lord, for everything. Amen
My Journal for Today: You’ve heard it before … “You can’t take it with you!”
It’s a simple lesson, for sure; so this devotional entry will be short and sweet [well, maybe not-so-sweet]. But I’m almost sure that we’ve all experienced the desire to go for the most we can get in the here-and-now. Money-love very easily seduces non-believers and Christians alike into temporal concerns; and in doing so, believers can lose focus on our trust in God.
Today’s verse is a terse warning from Paul to Timothy (and, of course to all Christians), telling us that our concerns need to be on the eternal rather than on the temporal. And God’s word is replete with restatements of this concern (see Prov. 27: 24, Job 1: 21, and Eccl. 5: 15) as well as the direct teachings of Jesus (Mark 8: 26, Matt. 6: 19 – 21, and Luke 12: 15 – 21). And in this latter passage from Christ, the parable of the rich young fool, Jesus very pointedly teaches His followers that WE cannot know when we will be taken from this life and into our eternity. Therefore, He exhorts His disciples to cultivate and be ever vigilant with our attitude of trust in God … and to be in total surrender to God’s will and His providence.
God provides the temporal so that we can prepare for the eternal. In Christ we have our ALL-IN-ALL; and in Him we have our forever. [Oooh! That has to be a God-thought; because I made that up; and I’m not smart enough to think that one up!] … We really need say little else to emphasize this point.
My Prayer Today: Help me to trust You, Lord, for everything. Amen
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