What is your treasure?
Where is God in your list of priorities?
Who or what do you spend the most time with? Gold and silver corrode and all things of
this world are temporary. As we wait for
the Lord we must be patient and use our time on earth to help others, to
Glorify God, and to establish our hearts.
In every believer’s life God is in the process of growing the gift of a
new mustard seed size baby faith into mature Spirit filled great faith. This journey is a process. As the Holy Spirit fills us with His Fruit,
our personal character begins to resemble, reflect, and reveal God’s character
in our own life. God shows us how we are
to treat others. He knows how we treat
and love our neighbors. We are
accountable to Him. As we wait for the
Lord and wait for our entrance into eternity, we must self reflect and ask ourselves,
“How have we treated others?” We must
use our time on earth to establish our hearts and our spiritual
understanding. We are all getting ready
to someday leave the temporary and enter the eternal. James 5:8 says “..be patient, establish your
hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand”.
In the Old Testament, the prophets are given to us as an
example of patience and endurance in suffering.
God led me to the Book of Job during an intense time of suffering in my
life almost 40 years ago. God used the
story of Job’s faithfulness and endurance to teach me and to grow my personal
faith. I knew that if Job was so beloved
by God yet he was allowed to go through such trials; I absolutely knew that God
loved me also. He knew what I was going
through. He was walking with me through
this time of pain and suffering. He was
not going to leave me. I could not see
my future but I knew He had a plan and purpose.
I chose to trust even though I could not understand the moment. I have been in the Word these past 40 years
and God has grown my faith into a mature deep believing faith. I continually thank the Lord for His Word,
for the gift of faith in my life, and for continuing to teach me, fill me, and
grow me in Him!
James tells us to keep praying and praising God in song and
Psalms during times of cheerfulness. We
are also to keep praying, singing, and praising God in times of trials and
suffering. He tells us how important the
church is to believers by showing us how important it is for believers to bring
the sick to the church elders for prayer and spiritual anointing. Verses 15 and 16 stress the power and
effectiveness of the fervent, committed, believing, and united prayers of God’s
people. Elijah in the Old Testament is
given as an example of earnest prayer being heard and answered by God.
We are to keep praying.
We are to pray truthfully with right motives. We are to pray for the ability to know God’s
will so that we will know how we should pray. Our prayers are to align with
God’s purpose and promises in the Word.
We are to pray for results which will Glorify God in the answer and in
our lives. We are to be aware of others
who are watching us in the trial; watching how we go through the trial,
watching how we respond, and watching and waiting for God to answer. God uses situations in all of our lives to
bring us and others into truth and the knowledge of His saving Grace!
