Day 9:: What's Your Treasure?

To gain it all, you may lose your reputation, comfort, loved ones, job...
but if Jesus Christ is the reward, I'll take that any day.

• How can you tell what someone values? If its in your heart, it shows in your character. One girl put on her facebook once that she was so sick and tired of seeing nothing but status updates about God, children and how awful people's work days were. I politely responded that God (and the bible) is what I do; its who I am. And because He is the only one in my heart worthy of all the praise, He gets that number one spot. If I were to spend my time going out and partying all the time, there would be no room for God to be around. If my biggest goal was to be rich, I would spend all my time working and finding ways to make more money. Again, no time to spend with Jesus. Actions will always speak louder than any words ever will. 
• The day I discovered Jesus:: Wow. I'm gonna start crying. I'm not sure of the day...  I was at Temple of the Lord. It was on a Sunday night. And it was before my parents passed away (which is a really big deal--my mom got to see me give my heart to Jesus) I don't know what the message was about. I know that, with my hands raised in worship, I literally felt the Holy Spirit wrap His arms around me. Every single part of me tingled. And I'm pretty sure the tears didn't stop for hours. I always knew that belonging to Him was the only way to go to heaven. But on that day, I met the Forgiving God, the God of Grace, the God of Love. (I was right...tears are streaming.) It's impossible to understand what He is, and what He does. Its all beyond anything words could say. But I do know that when He speaks, its thunder in my soul. 
• If Christ is our treasure, it changes our outlook on success, pleasure, and approval. 'Success' at the world's level makes our treasure turn to status, money, position. Worldly 'pleasure' could make me happy for a little while...but it all fades away. Its not the real kind of true happiness. As long as my 'approval' comes from the Lord, there's nothing else I need. Sure I have problems wanting the success, pleasure, and the approval from those around me, but when it comes down to it, I know that as long as I'm pushing ahead of all my shortcomings, I will make Him proud.
• What does it mean to enjoy God's blessings without demanding them? Demanding blessings, in any way, is selfishness. And when we get those demanded blessings, it brings us pride. Pride is the end result of all things bad! :) Be thankful when He wants to give you something: knowledge, gifts, insight. That will all come in HIS time, and not your own. Once you get prideful about blessings, you may not be getting any more. :)
• You know? The second that my life becomes so overly compacted with activities that I want to do, and I pretty much run out of time in the day to spend with Jesus, my life becomes overwhelmingly stressful and hard to deal with and I struggle every day. He has this way of 'shocking' me back into the groove of my commitment to Him. Makes me treasure Him more. :)
• Has God tested me in my commitment to Him? Yep. I feel like wandering off sometimes. I see people have so much fun doing other things. They're Christians...but it's almost like, on the outside, their lives are so much more than mine seems. But...I don't move. I stay where I am, with God, and it seems like once my commitment is resolved, the blessings pour out! I'll take that. I am leading the most rewarding life I could live. I know that when I see the Face of God...nothing of this world will matter. 
• He is no fool to give what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose (Jim Elliot). 

Matt 14:44-46