32"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What we live for is what we become. I will end up - my heart will end up - where I put my energy and hope. We become possessed by what we set out to possess.
Because this is more true than we would like to admit, we need to be reminded often that life is a gift not a possession; and so is the Kingdom of God.
To lose life is to find it; to be possessed by the gift of the Kingdom is to become a servant in the work of the Kingdom. It is not just ours to have. It is ours to give.
And this means we will do strange things, even surprise ourselves.
For God’s Kingdom, freely given, joyfully received, becomes not a possession we have but a possession which has us!
“I don’t know why I put myself on the line.I don’t know why I said no to segregation.
I’m just another white Southerner,
and I wasn’t brought up to love integration.
But I was brought up to love Jesus Christ,
and when I saw the police of this city
use dogs on people, I asked myself what
Jesus Christ would have thought and He
would have done and that’s all I know about
how I CAME TO BE HERE, ON THE FIRING LINE.”
(White youth standing up for blacks in 60’s)
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, possess me with love and thankfulness, so I can be a servant in your Kingdom.”
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