The world has a lot of cool treasure to distract you from what is priceless.
Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth.
Psalm 29:2 Honor the Lord for the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
Have you ever dreamed of finding a treasure chest full of gold and jewelry? The world is full of stuff that we would like to get our hands on. It is so natural us to value new cars, fancy homes and a fat wallet, we can also see great value in the relationships that we have with our family and friends, but there is another treasure that is far above any of these.
It is good for us to examine our lives, take a look at ourselves and see how we are doing, take a quiz and ask yourself some important questions. While I listened to the Gaither Vocal Band sing the song "You Are My All In All" I thought of theses questions:
"What do I really value the most, is Jesus really the treasure that I am looking for?"
We have been told to love God, we know that he deserves to be loved to the highest level that a person can possibly love, but we let so much get in the way and rob us of our time with him or we take the time but we don't really love him fully.Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind."We can get lost in the empty pursuit of happiness, trying to get some more stuff, trying to have the perfect relationship, chasing down the stuff that the world says will make us happy. Finally when our day isn't going so well we decide to cry out to God to make it better. Is that true love?
I have to wonder how good of a job that we can do at loving God, since love comes from God and it is pure and without self seeking motives, how can we possibly love God adequately on this side of heaven? (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 1 John 4:7) While researching this blog post, I found this old hymn that I have never seen before, it speaks of the love that we should have for God that goes beyond any selfish motivation.
| My God, I love Thee--not because I hope for heaven thereby; Nor yet because,if I love not I must for ever die. Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me Upon the Cross embrace; For me didst bear the nails and spear, And manifold disgrace, And griefs and torments numberless, And sweat of agony, Yea, death itself; and all for me Who was Thine enemy. |
Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ,
Should I not love Thee well? Not for the hope of winning heaven, Of of escaping hell; Not with the hope of gaining aught, Not seeking a reward; But as Thyself hast loved me, O ever-loving Lord! So would I love Thee, dearest Lord, And in Thy praise will sing; Solely because Thou art my God, And my eternal King. |
