What Richness Are We Chasing?

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

https://youtu.be/Qy1P71pEaCE?si=9_Rf-ICMvxh4OXIX

“What Richness Are We Chasing?”

Colossians 3:16 NLT

Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.  Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives.

 

I read this passage recently from the Air1 Radio verse of the day and it really spoke to me.  The phrase “Fill your lives” really stood out.  I got to thinking about all the different things each day that I allow to fill my life.  From the time I get up in the morning till I go to bed, I have choices to decide what fills my day.  Whether I’m at home, at work, at church, shopping with my family or if I’m at different gatherings, I can decide what I allow to fill my mind and my heart. 

 

I admit that I often allow worldly things to fill my mind and heart throughout the day.  When I begin my day, I pray that God will guide me and lead me how He wants me to go, but then it doesn’t take long before selfish desires set in.  I see ads and hear different persuasive things throughout the day that tend to woo my heart and mind to chase after more worldly things. 

 

After 49 years of life, I know full well that chasing after the things of this world will never satisfy or lead me to a fulfilled life.  However, I still choose to chase these temporary pleasures, whatever they may be.  Paul is very clear in this passage to encourage us in that we need to let the richness of Christ fill our lives. 

 

What happens when we let the richness of Christ fill our lives instead of worldly influences?  Lots of great things, of course!  We become filled with eternal satisfaction that the world cannot provide.  We shine the light of Christ to show the lost His love.  We become a light others cannot ignore.  We think of others more before ourselves. 

 

When we let the richness of the world fill our lives, we become influenced in all the wrong ways and we tread down very bad paths.  Everything is temporary and we often wonder why we remain thirsty and longing for more.  When we long for more and more of the world, there is no way we can effectively teach and counsel other people in a Godly manner.  In this times, God’s not filling our lives and the world is! 

 

When we are filled with the richness of Christ, there is no comparing!  The world can never match what we receive through the richness of Christ.  Our hearts are filled and there is so much satisfaction!

 

I challenge all of us to watch closely each day what we are filling our lives with.  What are we allowing into our hearts and minds?  What are we following and chasing after?  Either we chase the richness of Christ or we chase the richness of this world. 

 

Which will it be?

Search My Heart...BEFORE

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

https://youtu.be/2pYj3fuXB2k?si=PtRQwpN4kfWn1omE

“Search My Heart…..BEFORE”

Psalm 139:23-24 NIV

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

 

From the time we wake up each day to the moment we go to bed, we are all preparing in some way throughout the day.  Many of us wake up early and head in to work.  Kids have to wake up and get ready for the school day.  When we are applying for a job, we have to fill out an application and go through an interview, possibly multiple.  When we graduate high school, we have to prepare for our college experience or what the next step is if we choose not to go to college.

 

We spend a lot of time preparing for things in our lives.  Why is that?  Why do we put so much effort into preparing for things each day?  Because we want to be sure we are prepared for the day to the best of our ability.  Most of my, if not all, do not like surprises that come up and throw our day off.  All of us have experienced this in one way or another.  We’ve all been caught off guard with unexpected schedule changes. 

 

I like to prepare for things in my life.  When I don’t feel prepared, it bothers me a lot.  I don’t always like sudden changes.  I do my best to deal with them and adjust, but I’m not always great at that. 

 

With us preparing every single day for so many different things, why do we not put more attention into how we prepare to respond to other people?  It’s easy when others are nice to us, but when they are not, it’s definitely challenging. 

 

This passage popped up in my morning reading time and it hit me again.  I need to ask God to search my heart fully and bring up anything that is not clean and anything offensive and ask Him to lead me.  In all my interactions with people each day, I need to pray “Search my heart….BEFORE”.  Before I react to something that may come off negative, I need God to search me.  I need to pause and think for a moment if this will encourage others or discourage them.

 

Sometimes, we feel like we need to get the “last word” in to a conversation.  We have all been there!  However, we need to ask God to search our heart BEFORE responding.  We always, always, always need to do a self-check and see what gremlins are hiding deep in our heart.  We always need to point inward and check our attitude before assuming others are wrong.  We need to approach everything in love to the best of our ability.

 

My encouragement to us all is to ask God to search our heart…BEFORE we react or respond to anything.  

They Think We Are Crazy

 YouTube Channel Video Devo

https://youtu.be/LauFlzYdeMs?si=Y-d3gmNPRAU-hj8w

“They Think We Are Crazy”

1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

 

As I’ve shared much in the past months, I started running April 2024 again.  I am now preparing for a half marathon in October.  It’s been a long process of continued training getting my pace down and preparing my body for the endurance.  There’s a lot of work going into this process and figuring out what I can handle.  But also, it’s been a very rewarding experience as I go on my long runs.  Just being out in nature has been really great.  There’s a nice long trail that runs 40 miles west of where I live, so it’s been my go-to for most of my long runs. 

 

I have to laugh and shake my head as I come home from each run.  My wife and daughter think I’m crazy every time I run.  They don’t understand why I like it so much.  A few weeks ago, my wife made a comment that totally cracked me up.  After she asked me about a long run, I said it was fun.  She then said, “I wouldn’t put fun and run in the same sentence!”  That was funny! 

 

The thing I’ve discovered in the past months and year is that many people just don’t get the fun of running and I get it.  Not everyone likes it, of course.  You either like it or you don’t.  I often joke around with other running buddies and tell them my family thinks I’m crazy for liking it and wanting to run more. 

 

I guess I’ll just be crazy!  I can’t expect my family or others who don’t get into it to understand.  It’s just something that runners get and it’s a rush to get better and better and chat about it.

 

As I think about these experiences of people not getting it and thinking I’m crazy, I can’t help but to think that’s exactly how some unbelievers look at us with our faith.  We talk about our experiences with God and how He has worked in our lives and many people just don’t get it.  They consider us wacko or crazy.  It makes no sense to them why we live the way we live.  They don’t see the fun of why we live for Christ.  They don’t understand why we give up certain ways of the world to be faithful to God.  It makes no sense to them.

 

Even though they don’t understand, it’s still up to us to continue living this way and showing the light to the lost.  Some will never get it or want to live that way.  Hopefully, they will respect us, but some just won’t.

 

God calls us to continue to live faithfully and that’s what we are called to do to the best of our ability.  The world is still going to call us crazy and we most likely will hear that from people for the rest of our lives.  All we can do is be proud of the “crazy life” we live for Christ and be a light to them. 

 

They think we are crazy and it’s our job to continue to show them why we live a crazy life.