Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father remind us of how His Kingdom works, so that we would not become too entangled with the ways of the world. Father, we focus too much on what we have, and not enough on each other. Please help us to seek out your Will as revealed clearly in your Word for how we should love others over things. Our hearts are so full of pride and desire. Please help us to guard our hearts. Please help us to obey you. In the name of Jesus please help us first to live as citizens of your Kingdom, and then of this country. And not the other way around. Amen.
Your Morning Song: "Battle Belongs" by Phil Wickham
Your Morning Scripture: Proverbs 15:17
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is
than a fattened ox and hatred with it.
...
One of the greatest blessings of our country, the United States of America, is also one of the most potent, subtle temptations for those of us who love Jesus. Things. Stuff. Belongings.
There's even a name for it, the "American Dream." What is the "American Dream?" House. Car. Job. Spouse. Kids. Retirement plans. Hobbies. Ease. Luxury. None of these things are bad by themselves. But when they become the ultimate, when they become to goal, when getting them and keeping them become the guiding light in our lives, we've lost something precious. All to gain something far less than precious.
What good is the best of all things, without love? The best food tastes like ash in my mouth if I don't love those I eat with. The best house feels empty, too big and too small, if I don't love those who live in it with me. There's always a better car when I don't love those who ride in it with me. Hobbies are hollow when they take the place of those I should have loved first instead. There's no fulfillment in retirement when I don't use my newfound time and opportunity to love those given to me by God.
Better is the poorest of dinners where love is, than the best of dinners where love is not.
What are our dreams? Do we dream of things? Or of love? Do we build our everyday habits and schedules and plans and dreams around the quality of our loving relationships? Spouse? Children? Family? Church Family? Acquaintances? Strangers?
Or are we like the world, sacrificing what ought not to be sacrificed in order to gain what is not worth the cost? Church. We, as a whole, are too much like the world. We divorce just as often, if not more. Our children are less obedient to God's Word than we are, and we ourselves are only somewhat so. Our lives are become too entangled with love for things instead of for the people God has given us to love.
What will we do? Let us begin with love. May we run to God and honestly, bravely, and humbly ask Him to show us what we need to change. To show us the risks we need to take. The forgiveness we need to ask for. The forgiveness we need to offer.
May we lay our lives before our Lord and ask Him to help us leverage our luxury in pursuit of His definition of love. May we not worship our lives and lose love in pursuit of luxury. May we repent, and change.
