CONCERT OF PRAYER

 Pray Week 741

 “Hot and Cold”

 Luke 12:34 (ESV)        For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

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 Did you ever play a game where blindfolded and guided only by ‘Hot!’, ‘Cold!’, ‘Hotter!’ and ‘Colder!’ commands you attempt to find a ‘treasure’? As you moved toward the treasure you became hotter and when you moved away you became colder.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rustdestroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” – Matthew 6:19

The Bible tells us about two sources of treasure.  One is the world’s treasures, all of its toys, gadgets, and pleasures.  The other is a treasure stored up for us in Heaven.  It accumulates as we live and serve Jesus Christ from a heart of love and worship of Him. The question for us today is ‘Are we moving toward or away from our treasure?  Are we getting hotter or colder in our relationship with Jesus Christ?

No servant can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.” – Luke 16:13

Jesus equates our heart’s treasure to that of a ‘master’.  Money, possessions, the things of this world collectively called ‘mammon’ in some translations can master us as we become unhealthily preoccupied with them or the debt burden they present to us.

…the borrower is the slave of the lender. – Proverbs 22:7

 Are you unable to carve out time in your day to worship and pray?  Yet there seems to always be time to work, shop, eat out, and watch TV.  Do you struggle to remain ‘present and accounted for’ in mind, heart, and spirit while attending church services as your mind wanders to what you will do later that day or during the upcoming week?  If this is true of you as it is for so many of us then your heart is being torn between two masters or treasures.

If our treasure is in this world then from the moment of our birth we began to move away from it for in truth we will die and leave it all behind.  If our treasure is in heaven, then throughout our life span we are moving closer and closer to it.

Our relationship with God is not an agenda item or an appointment on a schedule calendar at some future date before we pass from this life into eternity.  Things can change suddenly as has been evidenced by the recent devastation and loss of life from the tornadoes that ripped across Alabama and other southern states recently.

 …I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’- Luke 12:19

 Are you moving toward or away from your heart’s treasure?  Listen carefully and change direction if the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart: ‘colder’, ‘you’re getting colder’.  Seek His kingdom and His righteousness first.  May your treasure be your personal relationship with Jesus Christ and may you feel the growing warmth of His presence, love, and peace as you get closer to Him.

Close in prayer, thanksgiving & dedication of your work to the glory of God