[Ramez5]

“Don’t save treasures for yourselves here on earth. Moths and rust will destroy them. And thieves can break into your house and steal them. Instead, save your treasures in heaven, where they cannot be destroyed by moths or rust and where thieves cannot break in and steal them.
Your heart will be where your treasure is.

“The only source of light for the body is the eye. If you look at people and want to help them, you will be full of light. But if you look at people in a selfish way, you will be full of darkness. And if the only light you have is really darkness, you have the worst kind of darkness.

“You cannot serve two masters at the same time. You will hate one and love the other, or you will be loyal to one and not care about the other. You cannot serve God and Money at the same time.
Matthew 6:19-24 (ERV)

The Lord was asking me these questions today while meditating on verses from our ESV bible reading plan on the tab above. There is so much in this passage to meditate on and learn from! I always thought the middle verse about our 'eye being the lamp for the body' was a bit out of place. But after reading the commentaries, they all agree that it was a critical explanation as to why we really can’t serve God and money.

Our eye in the Greek was considered our ‘focus’. It was referring to whether we had a generous eye or a greedy eye. If our focus is on ourselves and our needs and desires..our whole life will be filled with darkness.

But if our eye is focused on the Lord and his kingdom and his righteousness.. then our whole body will be filled with God’s light.. our affections, our heart, .. our whole devotion would be towards God and so we will be generous since our security and our affections are for things in heaven not on things in the earth.

We can’t ‘focus’ on two things at once. And when we lose focus.. getting our eyes off the Lord and onto us.. everything falls apart.

Just yesterday, like Peter when he was walking on the water to Jesus, I got to looking away from the Lord. I was tired and let the anticipation of a relaxing evening begin to be my main focus. I started getting a bit attached to this ‘nice evening’ and what it would consist of. (Tired does not even begin to describe it.. I was sleep deprived from driving 7 hours to Austin and back.)

For the first time in weeks, my focus wandered from the Lord’s plans for the day, His word, and abiding in his presence. It took much longer than anticipated to load up from the house to drive back to the apartment.

Errands cropped up..and got us off schedule.. traffic built up.. and then the friend, whose birthday party I was trying to get Christian to, called. “Could I please bring five half gallons of icecream?” she asked. My mind just sort of glazed over in numbness.

Because I had my heart set on being home by 5:30, I found myself being a little short with her.

Normally, I’d have been quite happy to help her out--she's a dear friend--but I was tired.. and this was going to add 20 minutes or more.. and I was already off schedule.. and this would make me even later. Of course she understood completely when I told her there was no store on the way and even told me not to bother.. she was so sweet. But I knew I'd blown it. Sigh...

It may have been legitimate humanly speaking.. but I know that the real problem was my focus. It was on me and what I wanted. Not on the Lord and what He wanted.

My ‘eye’ was on myself.. and what I wanted.. what I was treasuring at that moment. It was not on the Lord.. and the opportunity to bless a friend. That wasn’t the only calamity either. I was short and even rude with my son Christian too. He seemed to be on slow speed too.. and the traffic conspired to delay me even further. Those drivers!

All this loss and even hurt feelings because my focus was wrong.. and my heart was in the wrong place. Had my focus been on the Lord and his righteousness.. and a willingness for Him to put delays and requests into ‘His schedule’ for me, then the afternoon would have been a joyous one.


But the good news is...
that when I felt that ugliness creeping up...
I repented right there on the road!

The Lord was so good.. he even provided a dollar store on the way to her house and I was able to get all she wanted with very little delay. My friend was so grateful. Though even there I found myself being selfish in the line.. when it moved too slow.

Sigh... one bad focus can lead
to a lot of bad attitudes and decisions.

I am so grateful the Lord reminded me that I can never get my eyes off of Him and his kingdom.. his purposes.. his plans.. and his presence. Every minute of every day.. needs to be for Him if I want to have the joy of his working through me.

We are for sure going to serve someone.. the question is who?

Dear Lord,
Help us set our affections on You and your kingdom.. and your righteousness. Help us to trust you with our future.. our financial worries.. our plans and desires. May we set our affections so strongly on you that nothing derails us. For your glory and your purposes.. for your service.. so we can have treasure in heaven, I ask these things for me and my readers today. Amen