When and how do the tests come?
Immediately. And like this:
I’ve been praying about having lost my passion and love for Jesus for over a month now. Probably more like two months. So my focus spiritually is how to “do the things I did at the beginning” or how to rekindle that passion and love. Lo and behold, I receive an email this morning from Pastor Greg Laurie advertising his new book, which I can receive for a generous donation of $35 or more. Ouch. I know – I’ll flip over to Amazon and see if they’ve got it listed there. Maybe I can get it for less that way.
Yes, they do have it on Amazon. I can get the Kindle version for $9.99. Wanna hear the description from Amazon?
“Our lives here are so often cluttered with the “cares of this world” that we fail to consider heavenly priorities and how they should be reflected in our earthly ones. At the beginning of Jesus’ most famous prayer, He teaches us to pray that God’s will “be done on earth as it is in heaven”. What heaven is up to is critical for us to understand if we’re going to live biblically. Pastor Greg Laurie explains that heaven is anything but a long, boring church service. People in heaven know about the time and place of ongoing events on earth. They are rational and recall everything from their earthly days, but most importantly for us, they have a unique perspective from which we can learn a great deal.
In this rich and relevant study, Greg sheds scriptural light on the sensational books and stories about people going to heaven and coming back, answers the nagging questions we are all dying to ask, and guides us to focus—right now—on what really matters.”
Catch that? Our lives are cluttered with the “cares of this world”. My exact struggle, and quite specifically my prayers! And cluttered? Did I mention that I’ve been systematically sorting through all the stuff that I’ve stashed in the spare bedroom again? I am throwing away notes from the early 90’s and looking at stacks and stacks of books and Sunday School material wondering why I am still hanging on to all this stuff??? Cluttered definitely describes my life. AND, I would point out that I’m reading through the Gospel of Matthew right now, and my reading this morning was chapter 6… which contains the Lord’s Prayer. I remember lingering on the words, “your kingdom come, your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven” and thinking about what that really meant.
And that’s what reels me in. The description is causing me to think, “This is speaking exactly to me! God must want me to have this book because it has all the answers!!”
My prayer – God, give me wisdom and discernment… and strength! I want all the answers and my flesh very badly wants this book that gives the appearance of having them. But my head knows that spending money I don’t have to purchase another “thing” that has to be managed, stored, accounted for, will only add to my problems.
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