Do
not… In His Word- 1-26-15
Matthew
6th tells us ;do not lay up for
yourselves riches, do not pray to be seen, do not give to be seen, do no fast
to be seen by others; do it all for the glory of God.
We
are told again and again in this chapter not to do things so that others will
see us doing it; we need to be humble in our giving, our getting and our
prayers and fasting, we need to do so as unto the Lord not to brag about how we
did this and that.
When
we are transformed and renewed we are to literally change our lives, our life
style should not be as it was in the world, our speech should change and our
clothing should change.
I
would go one step further to say that our heart should change these things.
When
we lay up our treasures in our heart, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34”;
then we will be in the place that we can know the heart of Jesus.
The
things that used to be important to us in life should no longer be so. We
should be striving to be more like Christ not man. Joshua had to choose whom he
would serve, God the Father, or the god’s of this world. Our false gods are a
little different today. (Joshua 24:15)
If
we are looking to selfish means, as in to ‘look good’ with fancy clothes, cars
or structure changes to our God given body we are not looking to God to make us
whom He wants us to be. On the flip to that if we are being lazy and not eating
right we are also not the person God wants us to be; choose you this day whom
you will serve; God or the gods of life.
I
am reminded of the building of the house on the rock; (Matthew 7:24-28) the
house had structural integrity. Jesus is our foundation; the structure we build
on His foundation of Hope should be firm, strong, clean and solidly connected.
We need our hearts to be ‘up to code’ with our Builder, God. That means we need
to be sure we are using the proper things to keep us together.
Put
on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:11
We
need to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil when people are
throwing spiritual or emotional darts at us; we need to know the Holy Spirit is
with us always, as soon as we invite Him into our hearts and lives He is with
us. He is not leaving so we need to remember whatever we do, there is the God
factor in it.
Do
pray in groups I am not saying that it is not okay to do that but when we pray
we need to know that our prayers are meant for God so it is what He leads us to
say that matters not what we think we have to sound like.
Sometimes
the most heart felt prayers and the ones you know are straight as they say from
our lips to God’s ears are the ones which are full of tears and broken
sentences.
“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray
publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I
tell you the truth that is all the reward they will ever get. But
when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your
Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other
religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their
words again and again. Don’t
be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask
him! Matthew
6:5-13
Make
your prayers personable and direct, God knows our hearts and minds and we need
to be able to talk to Him straight from the heart.
That
means being open and honest; do not be closed hearted or minded when it comes
to God because He really does know what you are thinking! He will show us the
right thing to do, speak to our hearts and minds even if we just give our focus
and our attentive listening to Him. Build the foundation of prayer today, do be
a follower of Christ, do what He says in His Word.
Dear
Heavenly Father,
Help
us to do your will today, and every day from this day forth. Open our ears and
our eyes that we can see and hear what Your Spirit tells us today; in Jesus
name, amen.
Suggested
Reading; Joshua 24:1-33, Matthew 6: 1-34, Matthew 7: 1-28 and Ephesians 6: 1-24