WANT

WANT

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

Matthew [ESV] 6:19-34 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

2Timothy 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, [Jn.16:33; Rom.8:17]

  Ann gently asked the often incarcerated middle-aged female inmate “What do you think your problem is?”

  Without hesitation the woman insightfully answered “It’s not a crime problem. It’s that I want what I want and I want it when I want it.”

  “Don’t we all?” confessed Ann.

  Indeed the little 4 letter word looms large in our lives. At times quite obviously, at other times covertly underlying. To define what I want and why I want it provides much understanding of my relationship with God and others. For instance: If I want ambient peace, by the wanting I may be solely motivated at the expense of all else encompassing serving God. If I want to serve Him, I quite likely forfeit surrounding peace while investing in His glad service.

 Another example: If I want people to be reconciled to God I will act as His ambassador. (2Cor.5:1-21) Fulfilling the responsibility in the holy manner of Christ and the apostles will quite likely diminish my ambient peace in degree or wholly. (As has been and is my experience.)

  Though blessedly progressed in the past 5 decades I am not yet to the point in my life of wanting what God’s wants of me in every instance. However, His deportment is what I want.

  And you?

EBB4