"It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." (ESV)
Think about that our God has made this promise for us in Christ, to never leave us. Whenever we feel like it or not, he will be with us, and he will also help us on our journey. Some of us may be a little frightened and thinking: "Will he watch every step that I go?". Yes he will! This is positive news, if you have accepted his son as Lord and Saviour, he will never leave you or forsake you.
We should always keep this in our mind, that he is always with us, thru the Holy Spirit, that dwells in us. God can't lie, or go back on his promises. So if we welcome Jesus into our lives, his spirit is with us whereever we go. When we wake up, or during the day, or thru the night he is still there. What an awesome God he is!
Let us always remind us, when we are feeling lonely, that Christ was hung on the cross outside the city, away from his people, to die for you and me. So we will never have to be lonely again, thru his grace, because he will be with us always!
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." (NIV)
It is so many things that wants to allure us to believe that, happiness can be bought by money. "If I only had this, I would be satisfied". But the fact that Jesus points out this so clearly; "you will be devoted to the one and despise the other", makes it clear you can not please God, if you have this mentality.
It is so easy to loose perspective in life. What is of importance? Jesus gives us a new way of looking at the issue of money when he says:
"Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (verse 20)
Why speak of heaven, when money will not be an issue in heaven anyway? We can live on this earth, and pay our taxes, our bills, and also wish for new stuff, but our hearts should not let these things take dominion in our lives. Our hearts should rather be directed upwards, believing He will give us everything we need, because He is our Provider. We should also know, that everything belongs to Him, including our self. And everything that we have, has been given to us by Him, meaning He can also take it from us.
It's still important to live for something greater than our selves. If we spend all our money on our selves, it can be because our lives is too much involved around our selves. To give, breaks the habit off a self centred behaviour. And there we have Jesus as our primary example on the cross, when He gave his whole life. It shows the ultimate way of living, not for Him self, but for others. Let ut all follow in footsteps of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
