Learning to put God first

Matthew 6:20-34

20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Do Not Worry

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[a]?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

It is hard to put all things that happen to life in the perspective of God's kingdom ... At least for me, it is difficult ... why? Because I keep forgetting God in all other things that is happening in my life. As hard as I try to remember God, I failed ....

- If I work, I should think of focusing on how the gospel and Jesus can be glorified to my work instead of focusing on enhancing my career or other little things at work

- If I am in a relationship, I should focus more on how to honor God through this relationship by honoring and loving my girlfriend

- If I invest, I should do it in a light of providing for myself, my future family, and the work of the gospel in the place where God wants me to be

- If I invest in property, I should do it in a light of providing the shelter and security for my future family so they too can bring glory to God in the end

- If I engage my work friends or friends in general, I should be focusing more on how to bring them to know Jesus and the gospel lovingly and respectfully, rather than focusing solely on having fun with them and chat about general life conditions

- If I am doing ministry at church, I should focus more on serving others and God, not my own pride

Well, it is hard for me!! But will try to always remind myself in the process of this life!!

ENGAGE - conference

Just wanna share a bit about ENGAGE conference that I attended lately ... I guess I am not gonna share the summary of the kotbah, but I will try to share the Word of God that struck me during the conference ...

OK, a little background about ENGAGE ... ENGAGE is one of the conference ran by Katoomba Christian Center by evangelical churches which is intended for young professional ... I went there last week and there were about 1000+ people gathered in mount Katoomba, Sydney ... It's always amazing to see God's people gathering together to hear God's Word and sing praises to His name !!! Always Good!!

Well, let me share what struck me there ... I guess I will remember ENGAGE as a reminder to self about my love for my Lord Jesus ... A reminder to love Him like when I first became a Christian ... I can't say that I forgot to pray or have a quiet time everyday, but my passion for God has become eroded by all the other things in life, like work, church activities, social activities, relationship, investment, etc ... One example would be, I forgot to spend enough time in my prayer to adore God and say that I LOVE GOD in my prayer .... or another example would be during praise and worship at church ... Kalo dulu I can be very easily moved by church songs yang mengena to my situation, but now kayaknya jarang juga due to always busy playing music, etc ....

I guess it is a reminder that God's command is to LOVE God with all my heart, mind and soul and to love others like myself ... I cried to God during the conference and prayed that God kept guarding my heart to keep loving Him and others ... and not to lose focus on that ...

One of the speaker said something like: "If after this conference, your love for God has grown and grown and grown, than I would consider this conference to be a successful one" ... I guess it's true that our knowledge of the Word of God will only become knowledge when we don't love God and adore Him in all our ways ... We need to love God first and I believe the Holy Spirit will teach us about the scripture in His own unique way ... But loving God must be a priority ...

So friends, hope this can be a good reminder for us too ...!!