Jesus said to him [the lawyer], “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." - Matthew 22:37
The danger when we pray to God or think about God is that we can develop the same mindset that we have when we make an on-line order.
Oh - I need this or that - maybe I am hungry so I will order something to be delivered. Or I need a shirt so I will sign on to my Amazon account and order it. I can have it in two or three days and today or tomorrow if I am will to pay a little more or buy a little more! Then I will go on about my business and not give a thought to that restaurant or Amazon until I have another need. In the same way in Zechariah, God questioned the motives of the people of Israel when they sought Him out.
When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me? When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? - Zechariah 7:5-6
Yeah - those unfaithful, ungrateful people right? - God's chosen uh huh! - they praised God with their lips but their hearts were far from Him. They only thought of themselves. And after all He did for them!
That was around 500 BC. So let's fast forward to about 44AD. Maybe people changed ....
You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. - James 4:2-3
Hmm - James wrote about same problem almost 600 years later. Still self focused. Still unfaithful and ungrateful!
Guess what - fast forward to today - 2000 years later. We struggle with the same problems. We can see the heart of the sinner does not change from generation to generation. Left on its own, it is self absorbed - looking out for number 1 - numero uno. Even after we are born again - we are prone to wander - Lord I feel it - prone to leave the God I love!
The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? - Jeremiah 17:9
But if we will love God with all our hearts, souls, minds (excluded from Deuteronomy 6), and strength (included in Mark 20, Luke 10, and Deuteronomy 6) that will leave no room for self absorption.
Oh to be like David who sought God with his whole heart. 1 Samuel 13:14
Listen - we must be mindful that since we are the beneficiaries of God's grace and we are saved by faith and not of our own works, it is so easy to shift focus on the gift and away from the Giver. We become anxious in the face of the issues of this life and want relief with little regard for the One giving it.
Think about it – Pray about it – Believe it – Walk in it. Let your light shine and give God the glory.
By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone
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