Week 9, Day 42 -- "Hungry for God": Matthew 6:1-34
It’s a new year! You know what that means; two months of TV commercials flooding the airwaves! “Join this gym/fitness center for an introductory price!” and “Drop 150 pounds in three days with this amazing new diet plan!” Health based ads, of course, play on our New Year’s Resolutions. Resolutions aren’t just limited to weight loss or healthy living, though. Giving up smoking, financial health, reading more, finding a new job, and learning a new skill or hobby are all very common resolutions that people make.
Notice what they all have in common -- DISCIPLINE! Changing our lives for the better requires new behaviors and new attitudes, and lots of discipline.
In today’s reading, which is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discusses some spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines help us to form habits that shape our faith life and our relationship with God. The traditional spiritual disciplines (Prayer, Meditation, Fasting, Study, Simplicity, Submission, Solitude, Service, Confession, Guidance, Celebration, and Worship) can be less than helpful if they are done for the wrong reasons, or if they become nothing more that empty rituals. BUT, if done for the right reasons they can indeed help us to form a strong faith.
Jesus addresses three of the above disciplines, plus two others in Matthew, Chapter six. He talks about Giving, Prayer, and Fasting. The point that runs through his teaching on all three is this -- these disciplines aren’t for “show”. If we’re doing them to gain attention or to get a few “atta boys” then we’re doing them for the wrong reason and we will get nothing out of them. But if keep them just between us and God, then they can be powerful exercizes to strength oour realtionship with God.
Jesus also touches on two things that we don’t usually think of as “disciplines” -- Money and Worry -- and shows us how the excessive preoccupation of either is unhealthy. He ends chapter six by pointing out the greatest spiritual discipline of all -- seeking his kingdom and righteousness first, and that pursuit will put everything else into its proper focus.
Challenges:
How often do you perform spiritual actions so others can see rather than performing for an audience of One -- Jesus?
Today, think about what it means for you to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Don’t simply think about it while reading today’s bible passage or this blog post; instead try to make it a thought all day long.
Week 9, Day 42 -- "Hungry for God": Matthew 6:1-34
It’s a new year! You know what that means; two months of TV commercials flooding the airwaves! “Join this gym/fitness center for an introductory price!” and “Drop 150 pounds in three days with this amazing new diet plan!” Health based ads, of course, play on our New Year’s Resolutions. Resolutions aren’t just limited to weight loss or healthy living, though. Giving up smoking, financial health, reading more, finding a new job, and learning a new skill or hobby are all very common resolutions that people make.
Notice what they all have in common -- DISCIPLINE! Changing our lives for the better requires new behaviors and new attitudes, and lots of discipline.
In today’s reading, which is a continuation of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discusses some spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines help us to form habits that shape our faith life and our relationship with God. The traditional spiritual disciplines (Prayer, Meditation, Fasting, Study, Simplicity, Submission, Solitude, Service, Confession, Guidance, Celebration, and Worship) can be less than helpful if they are done for the wrong reasons, or if they become nothing more that empty rituals. BUT, if done for the right reasons they can indeed help us to form a strong faith.
Jesus addresses three of the above disciplines, plus two others in Matthew, Chapter six. He talks about Giving, Prayer, and Fasting. The point that runs through his teaching on all three is this -- these disciplines aren’t for “show”. If we’re doing them to gain attention or to get a few “atta boys” then we’re doing them for the wrong reason and we will get nothing out of them. But if keep them just between us and God, then they can be powerful exercizes to strength oour realtionship with God.
Jesus also touches on two things that we don’t usually think of as “disciplines” -- Money and Worry -- and shows us how the excessive preoccupation of either is unhealthy. He ends chapter six by pointing out the greatest spiritual discipline of all -- seeking his kingdom and righteousness first, and that pursuit will put everything else into its proper focus.
Challenges: