FreeTruth

In my devotions the other day I came across Jesus' question in Matthew 6:25--"Is not life more than food?"

Do you ever have moments when the light suddenly goes on and you realize that when God led you into faith you were entering a whole new realm; you were passing a threshold into an entire different world and life view that simply defies every cultural and intuitive norm? That's what happened to me in reading our Lord's words.

It hit me as I read His words that the intuitive and cultural answer to our Lord's question is the exact opposite of the answer His rhetorical question expects. His expected answer is: "Of course life is more than food!" The world's answer would be: "Are you nuts?"

Intuition and culture would say: "Life is food and clothes, and satisfying our natural appetites for comfort, safety, sustenance, and survival." Jesus says in effect: "No; all those things miss the point. Life is about something more, something different, something counter-intuitive and counter-cultural."

Life is about the soul; the soul in relationship with the God who made it. "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" Jesus asks in another place. Jesus is a "meaning of life revolutionary." He turns conventional and instinctive "wisdom" on its ear, and sets the soul in an entirely new direction.

Friends, what is your life about? When you got up this morning, in what direction did the compass needle of your soul point instinctively? To food? To exercise? To work? To "looking good"? To concerns and cares and trials and disappointments and plans for fun or recreation or pleasure that you've made for today?

Or to God?

When you have a moment to think, where does your heart turn: inward or outward...or Upward? And if you realize that you haven't had many moments to think, do you determine to create more of them so you can answer the Upward call?

In the end there is only one thing that matters: the state and focus and eternal destiny of your never dying soul in relationship with the God Who created it for His pleasure and your joy. This is what life is all about!

Labels: Hedonism, Materialism, Priorities

Anonymous #3 spoke of not wanting to "build new rust piles" (what a vivid word picture!). I think we can be helped to avoid that futile and even sinful way of life by considering this thing we call need.

I'd like you to think with me about need: just what is it? Let's sift through all the things we have come to possess or desire or enjoy, and try to discern which of them is really need and which is extra. Let me begin by mentioning some of the Scriptures that help us define need as God does.

In Matthew 6:25-33 Jesus defines food, drink,and clothing as things the Father knows we need (Matthew 6:31, 32). This would seem to sharpen our focus when defining physical/material need (the kind of need I'm talking about here; spiritual need is another matter) to two basic provisions: adequate nutrition and adequate shelter(clothing is a form of shelter) to nourish our bodies' health and protect our bodies from the elements.

1 Timothy 6:6-8 lends support to this narrow definition of need. In this text Paul speaks explicitly of food and clothing as all we need for contentment. Basic and sufficient food to nourish the body and just enough clothes to cover and shelter the body. Nothing more is required. James 2:14-16 also seems to define need in terms of these same two basic provisions.

In Proverbs 30:7-9 the wise man asks God to preserve him from the kind of luxury that tempts us to forget God. Instead he asks simply for "the food that is needful". There's a parallel here to Jesus' encouragment to pray: "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11). In essence this prayer says: "Lord we ask for nothing more than today's bread for today's bread is all we need."

All I'm trying to do in mentioning these texts is to help us define physical/material need biblically, as God defines it. And it seems clear that need is to be seen simply as enough food and clothing/roof shelter to keep me alive today (for however many todays God plans to give me). Read that again and give it thought.

To help you gain perspective let me list ten things I have enjoyed, used, and desired in the past 24 hours that I have not needed:
1. Television/internet for entertainment purposes.
2. Sweets (and the second hamburger I had for dinner last evening).
3. A hot shower (or any shower for that matter; a simple gallon bowl of cold water would have sufficed).
4. Sports (I really did not need for my Red Sox to beat the Yankees yet again!)
5. A razor (is it really necessary that I shave?)
6. My easy chair (this is a comfort, not a need).
7. My dog and the dog food she eats (this is a luxury, not a necessity).
8. My chiropractor visit (I really do not need relief from pain, though I do like it).
9. Toothpaste (I could have brushed with water only, and baking soda would do just as good of a job as Crest).
10. The fan blowing on me right now to cool me off.

Stop to think: none of these things is a need as biblically defined. How does this clearer perspective affect your attitudes; your expectations from God; your contentment quotient; your spending plans?

Now what I'd like to ask is that you comment and in your comments help us list many of the things we have enjoyed, desired, and used in the past 24 hours which we may have considered to be necessary or important, but which simply are not.

Go ahead, submit 5-10 suggestions.

Labels: Contentment, Materialism, Need, Priorities