And He said to Him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and will all your mind.”
We do not watch a lot of television, but when we do we seem to be bombarded by commercials.
There is the one for a credit card and in the commercial there is typically some group of people who are having difficulty using the points that they have earned on their credit card. The spokesperson for the commercial then interjects and explains how wonderful the credit card that she represents is and how easy it is to use the points, blah, blah blah. At the end of the commercial she says “So what’s in your wallet?”.
Then there is a stock trading company commercial that shows a man pretending to like his brother in law who is all the things he isn’t, kind, attractive, successful and deeply loved by the mans family, especially his own father, who seems to prefer the brother in law to his own son. Then the spokesperson cuts in and basically says beat him in the only area that won’t take any effort. Use this company and although your family will still like him better, you will have incredible amounts of money.
And how about the car commercials that infer that although you may not be rich and successful, if you drive this car people will think you are. Or, the diet food, diet pill and exercise equipment commercials that have us comparing ourselves to the models on the commercial and how happy and successful they are compared to us and wishing we were more like them.
The thoughts and question that these types of commercials illicit are designed to cause us to compare our possessions and our being to what they are offering and to decide that we can’t continue life with out these products, services, etc.
The reality is, especially for Americans, the last thing we need is MORE! We seem to be driven to possess the newest, biggest, best, and most of everything. I am convinced that one of the biggest industries in the Country is storage units. We buy so much stuff that we then have to rent a storage unit to contain the stuff we had before this purchase. And before long, we have paid more renting the unit than it would have cost to purchase all of the stuff brand new. But we cannot have enough.
Why? Why are we so consumed by things, possessions, status and money. The answer, if we don’t know Jesus, it is because we try to fill the Jesus shaped whole in our heart with all the other stuff and to be like the guy in the stock commercial, we want to fill that void with the least amount of sacrifice. Take it from someone who tried….it doesn’t work.
If we do know Jesus, the reason we want more is because we get caught up in looking around us and trying to be like the world. James 4:4 says “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” We are not to be like the world. We are to be like Christ and reveal him to the world.
Jesus never took His eyes off the Father and the Father’s will. And we are to be like Him. Colossians 3:2 tells us to “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
If we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have the greatest possession known to man. Because of Jesus sacrifice, we have eternal salvation, in Heaven, in a mansion, on streets of gold and the best part is we will be in the presence of our Heavenly Father and our Savior who is seated at His right hand for all of eternity! What on earth are we trying to obtain in this world that is of any value?
If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, please, please go to our Life preserver page and pray the prayer outlined there. I promise you that there is nothing that this world has to offer that will ever compare to the treasure that is Christ our Lord.
So, lets stop striving for things of this world. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,”. And instead, let’s “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”.
Those things that we can lay up for ourselves are the blessings of God that we receive when we get to Heaven. And we earn those by serving Him in obedience, in this life. Whether we are feeding the hungry, giving to the poor, evangelizing or writing a blog ; ) Those are things that will never rust or fade. And lets face it “where our heart is, there our treasure is also”.
Have we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior? Is the Holy Spirit indwelling our heart? Have we set our heart, mind, soul and efforts on our Heavenly Father and the eternal kingdom of God? Or are we chasing after possessions of this world that will end up rusty old moth eaten possessions, that we leave behind when we die!
Whats in your heart?
I pray that today, you are blessed and that you keep your eyes on Jesus and Heavenly things. If you do, I promise you will have a lot more peace, joy and contentment.
Luv ya!
