Texts
- Matthew 6:16-34—(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206:16-34&version=31)
- Marriage Blog—Monday, May 28, 2007, “What You See is What You Get!”—(http://marriagegodsway.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html)
- Joe Eaton’s Devotional—John 6:25-29, 51, Chapter 6 (available upon request)
Summary of Job 9—In this chapter Job paints a picture of just how mighty God is, as Job points out how helpless he is against such a powerful God. No matter how powerful or blameless a man is, God is infinitely more. At the end, Job laments, “If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that His terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of Him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot” (33-35).
Summary of Matthew 6:16-34—Continuing on in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks first about fasting. He again states that something like that should not be done out of pride and for the reactions of others, but done secretively—so that only God sees. Instead of getting human honor for it, one should seek God’s honoring of the act. Then, Jesus mentions that we are not to store up for ourselves treasures here on earth, for these are only temporary, and we ought to seek the eternal. We cannot serve two masters, one of the temporary and one of the eternal. So really, if one is serving the eternal master, why worry about temporary things like food or clothes? He can provide for our needs. If we seek to serve and honor Him, the temporary will be provided for and great rewards will be granted in the eternal.
Summary of “What You See is What You Get!”—Today’s blog post is an interesting take for unmarried couples. The Scotts talked about how most married couples don’t really take God into consideration when they are looking for a spouse, they just choose from what they can sense and see, and that’s the end of it. However, marriage is a huge, life-long commitment that we need to trust God with. Sometimes that’s hard when we can’t see what all is going on, but we need to trust Him that He can take care of us.
Summary of Joe’s devotional on John 6:25-29, 51—In this passage, Jesus confronts the crowds following Him, and tells them that they aren’t really seeking Him for His sake, but because He fed them. Joe writes that, “[Jesus] commands us to “Labor [not] for the food that perishes…but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal” (emphasis mine). There are two types of “food” defined in this text. The “food that perishes” is all of our earthly stuff. One day, all of it will be gone. We know that God has “set His seal” on the “food that endures”. Therefore, that “food” must be Jesus Christ Himself. In this passage, Jesus pinpointed the sin of the crowd…the sin of idolatry. The crowd idolized the bread and forgot the Bread of Life…So, they asked Jesus, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered simply, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” That is all we are called to do.”
Both Matthew and the Scotts talked about how important it is to not focus on the temporary or just on what is visible, but on God and trusting Him to provide for our wants and needs. John and Job continue that thought by pointing out how powerful God is, either with language or in visible signs like the bread. The visible bread is proof that He is able to take care of the temporary needs. However, temporary things don’t last, and, as Job voiced, we need someone to take care of us on an eternal level, well, God took care of that too, we just need to believe in the One that He sent.
We as people are eternal beings with temporary needs that must be met as well. The first thing we need to pay attention to today is to decide which master we will serve—the god of the temporary, or the God of the eternal, the choice is yours. Once that choice has been taken care of, we need to act upon it. If the choice is the temporary god, then follow him, if it is the God of the eternal, then trust and follow Him. The God of the eternal is not only concerned with the eternal, but also with our needs here on the temporary level, whether as the Scotts said, that need is a spouse, or whether it be money, clothes, food, time, or dealing with friends…whether the need be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual the God of the eternal is able to take care of our every need, we only need to believe in the one whom He has sent to take care of us.
May the God of the eternal open your eyes to the provision He has sent and the blessings He has lavished upon you.
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