Friday, August 13, 2010

Devotions on the Lectionary: Pentecost 12, Gospel

by Michael Schottey

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

Where is your heart?

Sadly, too many of us look around at our meager surroundings or our piles of debt and think Jesus wasn't talking to us, but only to the rich when he asked them to give up their possessions and seek more important things above.

Yet, Christ was talking to his disciples when he said these words, and he is now talking to us as well.

In our worldly culture, we have all set our hearts on some sort of possession--the newest gadget, a fully funded IRA, or the biggest toy on our block. What's more, we eat, dress, and live in lavish luxury far above anything those first disciples could have imagined. If it isn't a possession, it's an activity, a hobby a person, a lifestyle, or an attitude.

So often, our heart has not been set on things above, but on things below. Rather than focusing skyward at our ascended Lord, our eyes are fixated around us.

Thankfully, our Savior's eyes have always been focused on his people. The Lord of both Heaven and Earth chose to treasure us above the treasures that were rightfully his so that we might inherit the same.

It is this same loving Lord that invites us to a banquet feast more lavish and luxurious than anything we could imagine.

It is this same loving Lord who died to pay the price for our selfishness.

You are his treasure. You are the desire of his heart.

Fix your eyes on Christ and his cross. No treasure can compare.

Prayer: Almighty God, I thank you for the freedom that your Son has won for me--to set my heart on things above, to true treasures and lasting wealth. Guard my heart and mind from selfishness and worldliness. Grant me patience and endurance as I wait for my heavenly inheritance. In Christ's name I pray, Amen.

Hymn
All depends on our possessing, God's abundant grace and blessing,
Though all Earthly wealth depart.
They who trust with faith unshaken, in their God are not forsaken,
And e'er keep a dauntless heart.

Many spend their lives in fretting, over trifles and in getting,
Things that have no solid ground.
I shall strive to win a treasure, that will bring me lasting pleasure,
And that now is seldom found.

CW 421:1,3

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