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 ¹² And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

 ¹⁴ To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵ Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. ¹⁶ Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. ¹⁷ For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. ¹⁸ He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. ²⁰ Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. Deuteronomy 10:12-20

 I’d like to start with understanding the word "fear" in this context. If we came face to face with God I reckon we would be on our knees, probably trembling too, but I think mainly in response to God’s glory and awesomeness. Fear often has a bad connotation, we think of being scared of being hurt or beaten or abused, but God will not do any of these things to us. If you can’t quite get your head around "good" fear, think about the word "respect;" respecting God because of who He is, how awesome and great and mighty and loving. There’s nothing to despise about God as he is always good and faithful, yet he’s still God and we are not! We need to remember he’s not there to serve us and answer our prayers and make life easier for us, like some sort of servant. We are there to serve him out of reverence and respect. Because it’s "clicked" that God is God and He is bigger and more powerful than we could ever imagine, and being God, He is free to will and to do whatever he chooses.

 Great, Mighty, Awesome… we cannot claim to be any of these things, yet sometimes we make ourselves and our desires to be more important than serving & loving God (who is all these things!). Fearing God is knowing that it’s His will not ours that should be done in our lives.

This is an Old Testament passage, talking to the nation of Israel (the Jews) who were God’s chosen people. Since Jesus, we too are God’s chosen people as Jesus has reconciled us to God even though we are Gentiles (non-Jews). We come together to form God’s people from every tribe, tongue and nation! So when we read this we need to remember that this was written before Jesus, but also that as God’s people what God desires from us is the same as what God asked from them: Fear the Lord, Walk in his ways, Love Him, Serve Him with all our hearts & souls. Observe his commands.

Why does God desire us to do these things? Verse 13… "For our own good".

 God reminds us of  Who He is – the heavens belong to him, "even the highest heavens". "The earth belongs to him and everything in it". Yet he tells us that even though he is God (please don’t forget it), and he can do whatever he wants with His heavens & His earth and everything on it (which is also all his by the way, created by Him for Himself) (Colossians 1:16), his choice is to love his people and be faithful to them no matter what. Not to Lord it over everyone and everything he made like some power-crazy king, no, God in all His goodness choses not to over-power us and force us into action, instead he choses to love us into obedience. His desire is that in loving us and pouring out his grace and mercy, we would love him in return and choose to turn to him and away from our sin and selfishness.

 What is our response to God’s love? It should be to get our hearts right. Verse 16.. "circumcise your hearts"

 God reminds us that he is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, he’s fair ("shows not partiality") and he’s just ("accepts no bribes") He cares about orphans ("fatherless"), "widows" and foreigners ("aliens"), basically all those who are vulnerable / without family / needing to be taken care of.

Because these people are in God’s heart, we too should love them and look after them out of the overflow of the love God has already given us. He reminds Israel that they were aliens, wandering in the desert with no home. We too were aliens, we were not a people, but now we are the people of God! (1 Peter 2:10) We were strangers to God, and yet through Jesus, God has chosen us and accepted us and adopted us into his family (Ephesians 1:5)!

How great is our God!

Why would we not respect God and want to love him, follow him and live each day for his glory and his praise, when he has been so good to us?

1 Kings 3:5-15 – Solomon asks for Wisdom

v5 [...] and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you."

Solomon answered [...] v7 "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.  8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

v10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings[...]

Read all of 1 Kings 3:5-15 here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%203:%205-15;&version=31

God basically said to Solomon You can have absolutely anything you want – so what will it be? 

 Solomon replies and asks for wisdom, God grants his request and gives him so much more besides!!

 If you were put in that situation (a bit like the genie & the lamp) what would you ask for?  Perhaps you’d take the opportunity for your mortgage to be paid off?! How cool would that be! Or perhaps for a new job? Or for God to step into your relationships, to fix a few things for you, or to give you a new relationship with someone you can spend the rest of your life with? Perhaps you’d ask for your life to be a bit easier – for more time to do the things you want to do? Maybe for just a little bit more money, so things weren’t quite as tight? None of these are bad things, but what Solomon asked for was something that was totally in line with God’s own heart…

Solomon knew he was young and inexperienced. He knew that he’d been given a huge responsibility as king to take care of God’s people. He knew he couldn’t do it without God’s help, so he acknowledged his weakness before God and his reliance on him, and he asked for wisdom so that he could serve God well and be a blessing to the people he had been given to rule over.

v9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.

I think that’s a totally amazing request! Even more so because he was so young!  We can all learn so much from that humble and selfless request to God. God was pleased with Solomon because he asked for something to help him serve God and others well. God was so pleased with him that he decided to bless him by giving him not only world-renowned wisdom (check out the rest of Solomos story!) but also everything else that he could have (but didn’t) ask for! Just like in Matt 6:33 which was written many many years after Solomon lived  “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

What are you asking God for at the moment? Are your prayer requests motivated in serving God and others well, or are you looking more for your own personal gain? God is a wonderful caring father and he listens to all of our requests and provides for all of our needs. Trust that these things are already in his hands, and seek first God’s will and the gifts you need to serve him well. This is what pleases God, as our hearts and attitudes change to be more like Jesus – loving, serving and wanting to bless others before ourselves.

Thoughts from Kim Morrell Based on a talk by Craig Groeschel, Hillsong Conference 2009

6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

(Romans 12v6-8)

I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but I like things to be done my way. I like to have control. I have trouble handing things over to others because it easier and takes less time to do things myself. But I’m learning that in the context of church life, just because I can do something, doesn’t mean I should do it.

As part of God’s family, there’s so much we could be doing to serve our family and to be used by God. And I think a lot of us (including me) end up with “God-guilt” (this doesn’t come from God by the way) and say yes to a large number of things. We reason that we can do it and often worry deep down about what God or often more to the point, what people will think of us if we say no.

Slowly God is showing me, that He’s made each part of the body unique with a unique set of giftings. He’s made me unique. He’s given me a unique set of giftings. So if that’s the case, then I need to start asking myself some questions:

“What am I doing that is outside my unique calling?”

“What am I doing that I need to stop doing?”

“What is God asking me to cut back?”

Now it doesn’t mean that I can’t do those other things or that they aren’t important, but they aren’t what I’m to focus on. When I do those other things it actually takes me away from the very things God wants me to do. It takes away my time, my energy, resources, etc. So instead of saying I can do this and this. We need to start saying I can do this or this. Notice the verse above doesn’t say, let a man prophesy and teach and encourage. It says, “If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith” (v6b). We need to stop being people of ‘many’ and start being people of ‘few’. Maybe when we allow ourselves the chance to focus on those 1 or 2 things only, we will start to see greater breakthroughs.

The way I try and work out what “it” is that I’m supposed to be focusing on for God, I think about what I’m most passionate about in terms of the Kingdom of God and ministry. I ask myself what excites me the most. It’s usually here that your spirit is excited because it’s joining with God’s Spirit when you’re doing the very thing He’s called you to. If I’m passionate, I’ll move towards it, If I’m passionate, I’ll believe that anything is possible with God. And God will give me every single resource I need to do what He’s calling me to do, to reach those He’s calling me to reach.

“It” becomes much more than just working out your calling. “It” literally is your passion, your drive that comes from deep down inside you, from the Holy Spirit. If you have “it” inside, it will show outside. Have you found “it”?

In our small group we have been going through the book of Ephesians. Last week we got to Ephesians 4 and it spoke to me again about how we are all “in it together” so to speak. God has put us into a church, or we could say, built us into his body, so that together we might use the gifts he has given us to bless, encourage and spur one another on to maturity.

Ephesians 4: 11-16
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Sometimes we can feel like we can “go it alone” with our faith, as if our faith is a private matter just between us and God. Even though this is partly true – each one of us should have that personal relationship with Jesus, and pray behind closed doors – we should also acknowledge that without other believers we won’t grow in the same way. Why? Because that’s the way God made us! God chose for us to be in his family, in His body, all working together to build each other up, help each other to stay on track, and to ultimately bring him glory!

We therefore need to see our purpose for being part of God’s church. It’s not just getting together on a Sunday morning to worship (which is important) and it’s not just about turning up to other meetings to receive what God / other people have to say (also important). It’s also about using whatever God has given us to support & encourage others, whether we feel weak or strong, ready or no-where-near ready!

This often works best in a small group setting where we can know each other better and be more involved in the daily lives of others. Small group is a fantastic place to start – ask God how you can help others in your small group! Yet don’t stop there! Ask God to point out people who are new / on the edges of church / not being supported by others and ask Him to show you how you can help them to take their next steps with God. Each and every one of us has a vital part to play in order that the whole body is united and held together. God has given us each other, so that each one of can be loved, supported and encouraged to keep growing and maturing in God.

You may think you don’t have any of the specific gifts listed above, or that God can’t use you yet until… but this is not true ! He has given you ears – therefore you can listen. He has given you arms, therefore you can give someone a hug if they are feeling down…And he’s given you so much more besides which you can use!!!

You may feel like you don’t have the “right” things to say, but you have the Holy Spirit in you who will help you and guide you. Remember that people will be blessed and encouraged just by you caring enough to take the time to listen and find out how they are doing.

As you start doing the small things in love, to care for another person, God will then grow the gifts you have, and give you more gifts so that you can continue to bless and encourage people in new ways!

God is so eager to give you gifts to bless others with! Just ask Him!

So we’ve looked at being Christ’s friends and God’s Children. Now lets look at the rather strange picture of us being members of Christ’s body – which is the church. Not church as in a building, but a church as in the people of God all coming together to glorify him.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27
12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. [..] 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Each one of us is unique, we form different parts of the church, or “body” and we each have our roles to play and our jobs to do. We cannot be the church God has called us to be unless everyone plays their part and uses the gifts and skills that God has uniquely given to each of us.

We should not put ourselves down, thinking that we are an insignificant part of Christ’s church (if you look, the passage says the seemingly weaker parts are indispensable). We are each unique and have something to offer that no-one else can bring. Neither should we look at others and put them down if they don’t do the things God has put on our own hearts to do – they’ve been given a different job to us, and different skills and abilities. If we were all exactly like one another the body would be unbalanced and would not work well.

We also need to remember that we cannot fulfill God’s purposes alone! There is not one single body part that can keep functioning outside of the body! We all need each other!! We need to be part of a church body to keep our Christian faith alive, and we need the support of other Christians in order to grow, serve and reach others effectively. Without us all working together in unity, we can do nothing. And without the head, that is Christ, we are dead.

So if you don’t yet know how you fit, ask God what your part to play in the body is. Ask Him to help you work alongside other Christians and to remain in the body where you will grow and thrive. Don’t think you can be a hand without an arm, or an eye without a face – you aren’t going to last very long! Embrace the fact that we are all different – that there’s not another “you” in Christ’s team, but there are many other different people all serving God in the way God’s called them to, so that together the many different parts can make up a beautiful whole!

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  John 15:15

Jesus came to reveal God to us in a new way and to restore our relationship with him. Even today, by reading what Jesus had to say in the New Testament, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, God’s will and heart can be revealed to us.

Isn’t it amazing that God would choose to tell us about “his business,” he often shows us what he has planned through the gift of prophesy or by his word being made alive to us. He is our living God, who doesn’t change and remains faithful, yet he is creative & active in our lives. He wants us to know that we are called “friends” through Jesus! Friends of God! How amazing is that?

God doesn’t say to us “it’s none of your business” when we seek Him and ask him questions, he instead calls us friend and chooses to speak to us about who He is and what he’s doing!

We are not to be servants who just blindly obey, we are to be in relationship with him, so that he can encourage and help us as friends, and reveal to us his plans. God doesn’t mind us asking questions or trying to understand – he encourages us to see his wisdom and understanding! Proverbs puts it well “For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:6)

Sometimes we don’t always see straight away what God is doing, and occasionally he chooses not to reveal why we are going through a certain situation. Yet we know through scripture that “God works all things for the good of those who love him”(Romans 8:28). There are so many times that God does put people/situations/projects onto our hearts, revealing what he wants to do through us, his church. Then we can work side by side with him, not just as servants, but as friends. Using the gift of his word in the bible, our guide book for life, which is full of God’s promises for our future with Him. The promises of God, revealed and made perfect in Jesus, who calls us friends.

So let’s live in the knowledge that we are friends of the living God! Let us remember that he wants to share our lives with us because he loves us and cares for us.  And let us comunicate with God, asking him to speak to us as we pray and read his word, so that we might know the plans he has made and the promises he has already given us.

As for the Lord, his way is perfect. 2 Samuel 22:31

Do you groan at the thought of “having” to read your bible, or “having” to pray, or feeling obliged to help others?

Sometimes we need to look at why God tells us to do these things. God loves us, he’s not out to make your life a misery, he does everything out of love. So much so that Jesus died for us, it says so in the bible (John 3:16). Jesus came that we might have life, and life to the full, it says so in the bible (John 10:10). We are told that whoever Christ sets free is free indeed, it says that in the bible too! (John 8:36)

So we are offered unfailing love, life to the full, and ultimate freedom…. and the way that we get this is by living our lives as God intended!

God’s desire is for us to grow in faith, to trust in Him, to know we are secure in Him – not for his own benefit but for ours, in order to help us overcome out fears and to live our lives in freedom and security. He knows what will give us the most joyful and fulfilling lives, because he created us in the first place!

Why does God want us to read the bible?

He’s not going to give you a bible exam when you get to heaven- he’s not impressed with your head-knowledge and I doubt you’ll get extra brownie points for quoting bible verses off the top of your head. He wants us to read the bible so that we will grow and not easily be shaken! He wants to reveal to us through his word, his love and his faithfulness. It’s for us to gain an understanding of how amazing He is, so that we can trust in him more, let go of our insecurities and stand firm in the face of attack or difficulties.
He wants us to know the accounts of different people’s lives in the bible so we can see how he’s helped his people since the beginning of time, and how he will still do that for us today. The New Testament refers to so many people from the Old Testament (e.g. check out Hebrews 11), and we are even more blessed to have the Old & the New Testament to read.

When we read the word Jesus’ salvation is also revealed to us and we see that we don’t have to strive to please him, because we are no longer condemned but are set free. God doesn’t tell us that we have to read the bible to be saved, but when we are saved we should be longing to know more about this amazing God who saved us! By knowing the bible we can stand firm, not allowing the lies of the devil to trick us through our lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6) Check out how Jesus used scripture to stand up to the devil in Matt 4:1-11. As we learn through reading the bible, we can walk forward knowing that God is with us, and we can trust God more as we see his provision and guidance over the lives of the many people across so many generations before us. The bible is not about learning God’s rules, it’s about learning who God is, who we are in Him, and how he cares for and works through his people.

Why does God want us to pray?

God doesn’t want us to pray so he feels loved or talked to!  Its for OUR benefit, He wants us not to worry (check out Matt 6:25-34), just one of the many verses about not worrying!), he wants to carry our burdens (1 Peter 5:7) and to reassure us that we are in his hands, like so many others before him (Isaiah 41:10). He wants us to pray for others, so that through our care for others we can also experience his love and compassionate heart. God wants us to be in relationship with him, not through his own need, but because he knows that’s how we can live life to the fullest. It’s not a law that we have to keep, it’s a desire he wants us to have and to cultivate because it’s the best way to live our lives without worry, to learn to trust in him and to see him working in power in our lives. God wants us to be connected with him so he can guide us, the enemy wants us busy and distracted so that we can’t hear from God and are robbed of our peace. The bible says if we pray about everything we will gain God’s peace (Phillipians 4:6-7)

So if you’re praying to tick the box, then you’re not going to get the fullness of what God is offering you through the opportunity to pray. Look at it through new eyes, ask God to help you, and see each challenge, trouble, blessing, decision, quiet time, as an opportunity! A chance to include God, to ask for his help, to learn to trust him and to know that you are growing and becoming more free by handing things over to the One who is in control, so you can get on with living today in peace, knowing God’s got tomorrow in his hands.

Why does God want us to serve?

Again, It’s not about earning brownie points, it’s about our over-flow of love to God. If we are doing things to earn our way into God’s good books, then we’re not going to get anywhere other than exhausted(!), as we would be relying on ourselves and our own merits, and not on the death & resurrection of Jesus. There’s nothing more you can do to please God, so don’t let that be your motivation for serving.

God wants us to serve others because it helps us to be selfless people and we are happier when we are not so worried about our selves! Serving others helps us to see God’s love and compassion, it helps us to take our eyes off our own worries and fix them on Jesus instead. In doing this we gain lives that are more full of joy, fulfillment and deeper meaning. Even though us serving others, helps them and shows them God’s love, God also uses this to bless us and grow us and make us more joyful people. I read a news article recently that said that people who do voluntary work and help the poor/sick/vulnerable tend to be the most content with their lives.

So in summary, You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to pray, you don’t have to read your bible and you don’t have to serve others. When you want to pray, you’ll be blessed by doing so, you’ll see God moving and your faith will grow. When you want to read your bible in order to know God more, you will gain understanding and become stronger by doing so. When your desire is to serve others out of an overflow of love for God, and for your neighbour, then you will be blessed as you put others before you, it will become a joy rather than a burden, even more so as you see people responding to the love of God that shines through you!

God’s plan is for you to live life your to the full, in freedom, knowing he’s right there with you as you do the things he has set before you, not because you have to, but because you get to! It’s an opportunity, an invitation to live an amazing, joyful, fulfilling life with God!

Isn’t God’s way perfect?

In fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 1Cor12:18

I just wanted to encourage anyone who feels like a spare part or a broken part or a part that’s still on the shelf. God wants you to know that you’ve been designed by Him and put in the right place for the right time. God has placed you where you are intentionally, it’s not an accident on his part or by some mistake you are doing what you are doing, or are going through what you are God through. God has a reason and a purpose behind it. God can use you where you are at, he can use you right now for his plans and purposes because you’re exactly the person he wants for the job he’s given you.

Whether you are a foot, an ear, a hand or a mouth, even if you feel like a tiny insignificant part and you’d much rather be like someone else or doing something that other people are currently doing. Do not be dismayed. God has arranged each and every one of us in his Church to make up the Body of Christ and he needs each and every one of us to make up his glorious bride.

You are just where God want’s you to be – so make the most of it – take every opportunity to be you and to do what you do best, and don’t waste time looking to the left or right worrying what others are doing, but instead fix your eyes on your Creator and he’ll show you where you fit – what he’s designed you for and who he’s designed you to be.

Praise God that he has an awesome plan for each of our lives and that none of us are a mistake!  We are all unique, perfectly designed by God for his plans and purposes!

John 13:14-18 (Amplified Bible) 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher (Master), have washed your feet, you ought [it is your duty, you are under obligation, you owe it] to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you this as an example, so that you should do [in your turn] what I have done to you. 16 I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, A servant is not greater than his master, and no one who is sent is superior to the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed and happy and to be envied are you if you practice them [if you act accordingly and really do them].

The less we think about ourselves the happier we will be. Whether we like it or not, this is the truth!! As we put others first and serve them before our own needs, that’s when we’ll be blessed and happy, Jesus said so! We can’t make ourselves happy by focussing on our own needs all the time. It’s when we serve others that God says other people will envy us because they will see how happy and blessed we are!

So what’s stopping us?? Well…we are! It’s hard work and a lot of the time we don’t feeeeel like it, or we don’t think we have the time or the money, or we have things in our own lives that we want to sort out first… So we end up robbing ourselves of our own happiness, as well as disobeying God and robbing others of blessings that God wants to give them through us. We are told to be Christ on earth, serving others on behalf of God. Just so we are clear, we will never have the time and we will never have the money and we will never sort everything out in our lives, these things are just our excuses for procrastination or for being lazy. They are the things that the world tells us we need to get sorted first, to distract us from our purpose for life here on earth.

I know from experience that when we serve, we don’t feel “blessed and happy and envied” all the time! I know sometimes we feel like we are slogging away without any thanks or any real results, but God says that if we serve then we will be blessed. He’s promised it right here in his Word. It may take longer than you’d hoped, and it may cost more than you thought, but stick at it, you won’t be sorry; you’ll know God’s joy in doing what Jesus commanded, and your life on earth will have counted for something and made a big difference to other people’s lives & happiness – not least your own!

So… now you know these things, blessed and happy and to be envied are you if you practice them!!!

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19 -21
 

Where do you think your heart is? A good question to figure this out might be: “what occupies your mind in your spare time?”

Do you worry about your finances, are you thinking about the game you are playing on the internet, are you concerned for friends/family, are you thinking about food or drink or work or a TV programme? Do you spend a lot of time thinking about how selfish that lady at work is, or how if you just had that promotion/car/house/holiday, then you would be okay/happy. What is it that you spend most of your time “mulling over” in your head? Generally that will be where your heart is too, either long term or short term, this is the thing that you are spending time thinking about and perhaps worrying over – this is what you have decided is a valuable things to spend your time on.

So where would you like your heart/treasure to be? Are you happy with the things that are currently the focus in your life? Would God praise these things as being worthy of your time and effort? Do these things “store up treasures in heaven?”

I guess people have different ideas about what “treasures in heaven” are. People talk about the crowns that God will give us for our faithfulness, for serving and for many other things we have done/been on earth. When I think of treasures in heaven I think about what I would want to have with me for eternity. And what comes to my mind? People. My friends and my family. How awful would it be to have lots of “earthly riches” in heaven (or on earth) but not to have anyone to share them with? Eternity is a long time, I would soon get bored of crowns (apologies if you think this is bad!) but I’d never get bored with having the people I love around me.

Therefore, this is where I want my heart to be on earth. I want my treasure to be my relationships with others, and of course with God. To see people I know come to God, and also people I don’t yet know, but will have an eternity to get to know! I want my heart to be after walking each day on this earth with Jesus – learning to love, serve and encouraging others. To help people through tough times, enjoy the fun times, and to spur one another on in faith.

What about you? Where would you like your heart to be? What’s God prompting you to do on this earth that will have an impact for eternity in heaven?