Your Will Be Done-- Matthew 6:10

What is God’s Will?
God’s will is not just what happens. It is not God’s will for someone to die in their sin. It is not God’s will for anyone to act in evil (Ezekiel 18:32; Psalm 5:4). What God wills is what he takes pleasure in, what he delights in, what he desires. Unfortunately, there is much on the earth that is not according to God’s will. People are acting in evil and terrible things are done and experienced every day. This is not God’s will.
Whatever God desires, then he will decree. God is a king and he declares and commands his desires to be done. When God communicates his desire, then it is known to all the universe. Ultimately, what God decrees is God’s will.

How can anyone know God’s will?
But for us humans on earth, there are many wills expressed. Everyone makes their own desires known, and some make commands out of these desires. Others take their desires and say, “This is what God wills.” How are we to know? It seems so confusing.

God has made his will known to people on earth in five main ways:

Creation
Through God’s creation He has made Himself known—his power, his majesty and his ownership of the earth. Through this creation, we all know that we are to worship God and honor Him as creator (Romans 1; Psalm 19)

Messengers
God has appointed certain people to be messengers of His will. They are people who have heard directly from God his will and then communicates it to whomever God wishes. These messengers can be spiritual—angels—or human—prophets. (Hebrews 1:1)

God’s Spirit
God has sent His spirit to speak to the hearts of men to communicate his will. Sometimes the spirit speaks to people’s hearts, sometimes people can hear words, sometimes a vision or a dream. God will communicate to rulers how he wants them to rule, to the unrepentant of His judgment and to his people about what He wants them to do. Sometimes God’s Spirit speaks to us through other people who can hear God’s Spirit clearly. (John 14:26)

God’s word
God has had some of his messengers take his most important messages and write them down. These words were written so that everyone who desires to be a part of God’s people can clearly understand God’s will. In God’s word God’s will is clearly seen. (Psalm 19, 119; II Timothy 3:16)

Jesus
Jesus is God’s living Word. We not only have words from Jesus to clarify God’s will, but we also have his life to illustrate God’s will. Through Jesus—the only perfect Son of God— we can see and hear God’s will perfectly with perfect clarity. All the other four ways can only be understood through Jesus. (Hebrews 1:2; II John 1:3)

If we want to know what God’s will is, all we must do is ask God to reveal His will and then seek out these five sources of God’s will. But we must remember that whatever God’s will is, it must be in agreement with Jesus.

How should we respond to God’s will?
There are many good ways to respond to God’s will. We can read many of them in Psalm 119. We can hear or read God’s will and that is good, but we don’t always understand it. We can understand God’s will, but we don’t always desire it. We can desire God’s will, but we don’t always have it clarified. We can clarify God’s will, but we don’t always honor it. We can honor God’s will, but we don’t always speak it.

All of these things are good to do with God’s will. But none of them get us God’s salvation. God’s salvation is his true will for our lives. It is God’s blessing, God’s peace, God’s delighting in us, God’s security, God’s love in us. And we can spend all day with God’s will, teaching it and reading it and loving it all day long—but we will never gain what God wants us to have, we will never truly achieve God’s will until we do it.

The ultimate result of God’s will is to have it done. If we do God’s will we have all of God’s good gifts to us (Deuteronomy 29). If we do God’s will we have life (Deuteronomy 30). If we do God’s will, we are the family of Jesus (Matthew 12:50). If we do God’s will we will enter into God’s kingdom (Matthew 7). God’s will is the key to the best there is in life.

How is God’s will done in heaven?Heaven is God’s home, God’s headquarters. It is the center of the spirit world. All of God’s messengers and workers go to heaven to get their orders. And when they receive their orders, the orders are done, immediately. Even Satan listens to God’s commands and will and does just what He says. And if God tells Satan not to do something, he doesn’t do it (Job 1).

There is no one in heaven who says, “But I don’t wanna!” There is no one in heaven who says, “I think I’d rather do something else.” There is no one in heaven who puts their hands over their ears and screams until the command stops. There is no one in heaven who ignores what God says.

What does it mean for God’s will to be done on earth?
Of course, this isn’t the case on earth. Humans are in open rebellion against God. People devise evil in opposition to God’s will every minute. Even the ones who claim to obey God often ignore what God said or avoid a certain command of Jesus. The people of God aren’t often interested in hearing what God has to say about their lives or churches or homes.

When we pray “May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” we are praying the opposite of that. We are praying, first of all, that we ourselves desire God’s will and will do whatever He wills. We are praying that God’s people would listen to Jesus and obey him, whatever the cost. We are praying that the whole world would change to be like heaven—obedient to all of God’s commands.

But we aren’t just praying that. We are also praying for God’s power to come down on earth so that we CAN obey His will. We are so caught up in rebellion and disobedience that often we don’t even know when we are being rebellious. We need His Spirit to come and show us the truth. We need His power to work in us, to transform our minds so that we can know and do God’s will. And the prayer we pray isn’t just a resolution to do God’s will or to change the world so it will do God’s will. Rather, it is a request for God to enable all of us to do what we cannot seem to do now—to do what pleases Him.

“I delight to do your desire, O Lord”—Psalm 40:8

Give Us Daily Bread-- Matthew 6:11

God is the provider of all food
To pray the Lord’s prayer may, at times, seem pointless. After all, why should we pray for God to give us our bread today? What does God have to do with it? Food comes from the farm, is processed in factories, arrives in the store and we buy it. God seems far removed from the process. But without God we would have no food. God is the heart of all the food we eat. All food comes from the earth, and is allowed to grow through water. And God provides the earth, he provides the water (Ps 24:1). If God took away the water or the land, we would have no food to eat. So it makes sense to be grateful to God. Everyone depends on God for their food—that’s the way it is. (Ps 145:15)

God promises food to the obedient
But God is not just a distant provider of food, he also is concerned about some people’s food. Those people who have made an agreement with God to follow Him and to live according to His ways, God specifically makes sure that they have food. He has made many promises that those who are faithful to their agreement to Him, He will provide their food. They need not worry about it—ever. (Lev. 26:3-6 ; Ps. 37:25; Isaiah 33:15-16) God’s people will never lack food, He is always providing for them.

Hunger is the opposite of salvationBut, of course, not everyone has food. Many people go hungry. In fact, approximately one fifth of the people in the world today are starving to death—some slowly, some quickly (that’s much more than a billion). And another fifth of the world do not have the ability to get enough food to meet their nutritional needs. That isn’t choice on their part, they just can’t get it. And yet this is in a world in which the wealthy, industrialized nations need to pay farmers not to overproduce their land and so drive the prices down. In other words, farmers in the West must grow less, while those in the South are in greater and greater need.
Of course, this is terrible. The Bible has much to say about hunger, and it places the source of hunger—whether someone is starving, or just doesn’t have enough food—to one of four causes:

a. Famine—a widespread hunger due to bad crops. This is pretty common, especially in Genesis (Genesis 41, etc), and it is just a fact of life. But, at the same time, it seems that God provides other regions of the world with abundance so a famine might not be too severe.

b. Man’s oppression—withholding what one needs from the needy. Hunger occurs simply because of people’s stinginess. Some people have abundance, while others have need, but if the ones who have abundance refuse to share, then there is hunger. God always provides enough food in the world, but not everyone decides to share as God commands. (Proverbs 13:23)

c. Laziness—not wanting to work for food. Some people are hungry in the midst of abundance because they refuse to work. If a farmer doesn’t plant, no matter how much land they have, they will never have crops. Even so, everyone who wants to eat will have to do some kind of work. This doesn’t necessarily mean a “job” per se, but some kind of work. (Proverbs 12:11;20:13; 28:19)

d. God’s judgment—Some people who have made a covenant with God will go hungry. But this is only because they have ignored God’s covenant and been disobedient to God. (Lev. 26:26; Isaiah 3:1) This might be with individuals, or a whole nation—if a people have an agreement with God through Jesus or someone else and they disobey God—by worshipping a false god, by ignoring the poor in their midst, by being impure—then God may give them a judgment of hunger.

Food is God’s blessingHunger, then, is just the opposite of God’s salvation. It is almost the worst thing that can happen to a person—the very thing that sustains life, you cannot have. But God’s salvation is tied to food again and again—

· God blesses a nation that follows Him with abundant crops;

· When there is abundant food for everyone, it means that the needy are provided for by the people who are generous and loving.

· When there is abundant food, it means that our sins are forgiven by God, for He is providing us with the food we need.

A Prayer for the Contented Poor
Again, then, why should we ask God for our basic food? It seems like a self-sufficient system. But it isn’t that easy.

The Lord’s prayer is a prayer for the poor—those who aren’t sure where their bread is coming from on a worldly level. How many people, when their refrigerator is full of food and they have a pantry stocked with food and they have plenty of money in the bank—would they honestly pray “give us this day our bread”? They already know where their food is coming from! They know that they have food this day and the next and the next. They don’t have to be concerned for food, so why would they sincerely pray that prayer? They wouldn’t. So this prayer is not for those who know where their next meal comes from. It is for those who aren’t sure, on a worldly level. It is for the poor.

And this prayer isn’t for the greedy. After all, most of us, when we pray, we want our needs all taken care of—“Lord help me to not be poor anymore!” “Father, give me permanent housing!” “Father, give me a pantry full of food and money in the bank.” But that’s not what this prayer is about. It is praying only for the food one needs this day—not tomorrow or next month. It is recognizing that when God gives food, he gives it to people one day at a time—just like the Israelites in the wilderness. If they collected more than a day’s worth—knowing that the next day they would get more—the food would spoil and get worm in it. God was training them to trust in Him every day to provide the food they needed that day. This isn’t normal for an agricultural society—they usually think of food in a year-by-year basis. But Jesus was training his disciples to focus on trusting God for their food every day.

So the Lord’s prayer isn’t for the greedy, nor for those that have more than they need. It is for the poor who are contented to trust in God daily.

A New Standard of Living
But this isn’t how we are trained to think in our society. Our ideal is to have the big, permanent house, with the big, full pantry, and the huge yard and entertainment center and complete medical insurance and more and more. It is the American dream to have everything you need at your disposal all the time. But this isn’t Jesus’ ideal, it’s not the Christian dream. The Christian dream is to have God constantly providing for your every need every day. It may not mean having huge storage and a lot of possessions—but it does mean living without worry about basic needs, because we have experienced God’s provision on a daily basis. Even as Paul said, “With food and covering we shall be content.” (I Timothy 6:8)Any more than that is greed.

Does this mean that God is opposed to us having lots of stuff? Not necessarily. God often provides some people with lots of stuff and a huge house and a huge pantry full of food. But he provides it to people so they can provide to others. He gives excess so those who have excess can share with those who have less. The American way of life is having more than we need so our needs are all provided for. The Christian way of life is trusting in God for our needs, and being generous to those who do not have enough when we have more than we need.

Never Be Hungry AgainSo how, according to Jesus, can we never be hungry again? Simple:

Pray to God for food—(Matthew 7:9-11) God promises to provide food for us, but we need to ask Him. God will provide if we ask. Thus, we need to learn to ask. This is why Jesus commanded us to pray for our daily bread—that way we are daily asking God for our food.

Seek God’s kingdom and righteousness— (Matthew 6:25-33) If we are focused on righteousness, then God will provide our food—that has always been his promise. If we will do what is right in the Lord, be faithful to him in all of our ways, he will never allow us to go hungry. All we need to do is to trust in Him.

Provide for others out of our excess—(Proverbs 11:25; Luke 12:33) If we are generous with what God has given us, especially to those who are poor and needy, then God will provide us even more. We will not be limited to just our daily bread, but God will provide us with much more to share with others. Our pantries will be full—but it will be for the many whom we provide for on a daily basis.

Forgiving Debts-- Matthew 6:12

What is forgiveness?Forgiveness is, in it’s root, an economic term. If I owed someone some money, and then failed to pay it, I have defaulted on my loan, I have messed up my credit. The person whom I still owe money to will speak of nothing to me except my debt, and so I don’t want to talk to them at all. Our relationship is ended. But if I am “forgiven”, then my debt is wiped away. I no longer need to worry about paying off that debt, because the one whom I owed has wiped it away, erased it from the accounting book.

When we forgive someone else, often we think of it as “no hard feelings.” In other words, we are willing to set aside our anger, and not hold a grudge against them. We will not harm them, nor sue them, nor do anything to attack them in any way. And that is a difficult pill for many to swallow. But it is our Christian duty, so we will forgive.

The question is: will we accept? Many of us aren’t sure we want to do that. For if we accept the person, treating them as if nothing had happened, then they will think that their wrong against us was “nothing”. If we fully accept them, with no punishment involved, completely loving them as before their wrong against us, then we are opening ourselves up for a fall. “If you fool me once, shame on you; if you fool me twice, shame on me.” After all, we need to protect ourselves, right?

Well, in the Bible, forgiveness isn’t just a matter of our feelings. It is, first of all, wiping away the debt. For those who wronged us, the wrong is no longer there. It is as if it didn’t exist. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t need to be careful with people in their areas of weakness, but we don’t allow their weakness interfere with our relationship. Forgiveness is mostly a matter of relationship. To forgive is not just to say, “I’m not angry about that anymore.” It is saying, “We are still in relationship.” I will still treat you as part of my family. To not forgive, in the Bible, is separating oneself from the one who offended you. Lack of forgiveness means we still remember the wrong done to us, and it hangs between us every time we interact with the person who wronged us. Forgiveness means that the relationship may continue without that wrong tainting every part of our relationship.

Why do we need forgiveness from God?
The fact is, we owe God a huge debt. Not economically, for God freely gave us all the food, clothing and basic needs we had. We owe God nothing for that. But for creating us and loving us and giving us a planet to rule, for that we owe him big time. It is similar to what we owe our parents for making us. Even if we don’t like them, we owe them something for without them we wouldn’t exist. Well, what God asks of us is our respect and obedience. He just wants us to listen to Him when he tells us to do things, because, after all, it’s for our own good anyway.

But we defaulted on our debt. We have disobeyed God again and again. In fact, we can almost say that a good portion of our lives are characterized by us owing God more and more and more. Almost every day we owe God such a huge debt of obedience, that we can never catch up. And frankly, we never will. The debt is too huge already.

So what did that do to our relationship with God? Well, though God loves us and wants to be with us, He can’t live with people who constantly disobey him. It’s kind of like living with someone who is constantly grating on your nerves, always doing the very thing you hate. You just can’t stand to live with that person. Life is like a torture. And God, the king of the universe, will not accept that. So we will not live in relationship with Him. Not until the debt is settled. Not until we deal with our disobedience.

Is God willing to give us forgiveness?
But God loves us. He really does. We may think, “Why doesn’t God just forget about our sin and leave it behind, if he loved us so much?” Well, it’s because we keep bringing it up. We are constantly disobeying God. But God loves us so much that he is willing to go to any length to restore our relationship. He is willing to do anything, short of giving up on us and our obedience. And frankly, God gave us a great opportunity. He gave us the possibility of forgiveness. It costs us a lot—I must admit— and yet we can gain so much. So how can this debt be wiped away?

Death of JesusFirst of all, God sent his Son, Jesus to die for us. Jesus death created a new nation called “the Kingdom of God” which anyone is allowed to enter. Those in the Kingdom of God can speak with God and have a free and open relationship with Him. They can pray to God and have their prayers heard and answered. They can receive wonderful blessings of God like His Holy Spirit and daily provision and healing. And they can understand what God says to them. To enter this kingdom, all one has to do is to commit to Jesus as their king. This means Jesus is in charge of our lives, and tells us what to do. And then we can have full access to God. If we commit ourselves to Jesus, then our debt of disobedience is fully forgiven.

Confession of Sin
However, we still have a problem. We still disobey God. Sometimes quite a bit. Does this make Jesus’ death null and void? No, because in Jesus we are told how to deal with the sins we do. We confess and repent of our sins. Yes, we will sin and disobey God. But if we admit our sin and then turn from anything that might cause us to sin, then we are forgiven. If we do this, Jesus gives us the strength to not return to our sin, if we would depend on him. That takes care of the sins we do daily.

Forgiving others
Well, then, our sinful life is erased, and our daily sins are repented of—everything is okay, right? Well, there still is one more thing, according to Jesus. You see, God hasn’t only forgiven us, but He has forgiven a number of others. We are all a part of Jesus’ kingdom together. But what happens if those who are forgiven by God don’t forgive each other? Well, suppose there were three people stuck in an elevator. Two of them hate each other’s guts, but they both like the other. Even though they have a relationship with one person, the anger and hatred of the other will make their life a living hell.

Even so, the kingdom of God doesn’t work unless we are willing to forgive each other even as God forgave us. If we agree that God has a relationship with someone—that He has forgiven their sins, and they are right before Him—then we need to have a relationship with them as well. Jesus is very clear about this—if we reject the one whom God accepts, then we will be rejected by God. If we are looking for God’s forgiveness, we will need to forgive others when they do us wrong.

Do we forgive literal “debts”?
There is still one more issue. We remember that forgiveness isn’t only relational, but economic. Does that mean that we need to forgive the literal, monetary “debts” as well? In Luke 6, Jesus said this: “Do good and lend, expecting nothing in return.” In other words, if someone owes you money—cold, hard cash—and they can’t pay it back, forgive it. Wipe it away. Just forget about it. Forgiveness of others isn’t just about sins, nor just about hurt feelings—although it includes all that. It also includes financial debts.

Into Temptation, From Evil-- Matthew 6:13

If “hallowed be thy name” is the most misunderstood line in the Lord’s prayer, the two lines “Lead us not into temptation” and “Deliver us from evil” certainly come a close second. For one thing, the two lines mean almost the same thing. Secondly, it probably has little to do with the daily temptations we face. In summary, they mean, “God keep us from being oppressed.” This may seem confusing, but perhaps we can explain it a bit:

What is evil?When we say something is evil, we mean that it is lacking morality. If we say a person is evil we mean that they are not as moral as most people. But when Scripture speaks about “evil”, it is more specific than just morality. If a person is in an “evil circumstance” it means that they are in dire straits, a very difficult situation that destroys them physically, emotionally or spiritually. When Scripture speaks of someone—like Satan—as being an “evil one” it does not mean that Satan is lacking in morality. It means that he puts people in difficult—seemingly impossible—circumstances. This is like Job, the righteous man of the Old Testament. Satan killed his children, destroyed his wealth, destroyed his property and gave him a plague on his body. This is what the Bible calls “evil”—terrible, devastating circumstances. When we are praying for God to deliver us from “evil” or “the evil one”, we are asking God to get us out of terrible circumstances—oppression, sickness, persecution, not having enough for our needs, sorrow, death, etc.

How is this “tempting”?
But evil circumstances aren’t just uncomfortable, they have a spiritual componant to them. Most everyone has been through such a terrible trial that it has led them to doubt God’s existence, or His goodness. This happened to Job as well—his difficulties were so hard that he questioned God’s justice. Some trials are so hard that they cause us to doubt our faith. The Greek word that is translated “temptation” would probably be better translated, “a difficulty so bad that it makes us question our faith.” Difficulties in our lives can lead us to do things we know are disobedient to God. Trials can cause us to turn away from God—sometimes in practice, sometimes in our belief. Suffering can make it so that we no longer trust God. When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we are asking God not to put us in these kinds of circumstances.

Does God lead us to this kind of evil?
The fact is, God, at times, DOES lead us to difficulties to test us. God tested Abraham’s love of Him. God tested Israel in the wilderness with hunger and thirst. The Father tested Jesus by sending him to Satan. And God allowed Jesus to suffer through the ultimate test: willingness to die on the cross for us. Frankly, Jesus begged and pleaded for God to take him out of that circumstance. But God put him into it anyway.
This does not mean that God tempts us to DO evil. Yes, God places us in difficult, even terrible circumstances, sometimes. But what we do in those circumstances is our own choice. We can choose to obey God, even if it hurts us. We can choose to trust God, even if we see no way out of a terrible situation. We can love God, even though He allowed people to hurt us. We can have our hope in God, even though God gave permission to Satan to take away our health. If we sin, if we do evil to others, if we give in to our dark impulses, we were not tempted by God, but tempted by our evil desires.

What if we don’t deserve it?
There are some people that God punishes because they have sinned before God, disobeying Him, and He is training them, or others, not to do that. But God allows everyone to have circumstances like that, sometimes. Some more than others. For some, this is punishment. But people who are right before God are also put into trials that test their faith, like Abraham, Job and Jesus. Why does God do this? Because God wants to see and display his people’s true character.

How do we know who we really are? Not by what we say—we deceive ourselves too readily. Not even by what we normally do—society can form us and make us what we are not. Who we truly are is seen when we are in difficult circumstances. When we are sick, when we are persecuted, when we are hated, when we are publicly humiliated, when we are physically torn apart—those are the times we show what we are really made of, what our real character is. What God is testing is how far He is in us. If He is firmly planted in us, then when we are going through difficulties, He will show through. But if our Christianity is just a farce, just a façade, then our true nature will show itself—our complaining, our anger, our hatred, our lust, our greed and all the other things that come with human nature. So God sometimes leads us into evil circumstances to test our faith.

How can we not be led to this trial?
Sometimes it is just our time to be brought into testing. This is the case with Jesus, who escaped many deaths and difficulties, until it was his time to be tried, and then, no matter what his pleading, he wouldn’t go into trial. But at the time of Jesus’ trial, he was telling the disciples what to do to not enter into the trial. It wasn’t their time, it was his, and so they didn’t have to suffer with him yet. How could they have avoided this? Jesus told them, “Keep watching and praying that you do not enter into temptation.” (Mark 14:38). If it isn’t our time to enter our test, then we need to do two things—First of all, we need to be alert to the circumstances as they are coming our way. The disciples were sleeping, they weren’t paying attention. Peter said later “Be alert for Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8). Secondly, we need to pray that God wouldn’t allow us to be tested when it isn’t our time. We need to recognize our weaknesses, and we need to beg God that He not test us when we aren’t ready for it. This is what Jesus commanded his disciples to do—both on the night of his test, and in the Lord’s prayer.

How are we delivered?Sometimes, however, we weren’t alert. Sometimes we didn’t pray. Or sometimes it is our time to be tested. But that doesn’t mean there is no hope. God always grants us hope—and that hope is deliverance. When we find ourselves in the circumstances that we cannot handle, we can ask God to deliver us out of them. God gave Abraham and Job a way out of these trials. Jesus’ way out was through resurrection. But everyone can have an opportunity to escape the difficulties they are in—through healing, through justice, through freedom, through mercy by a follower of God. But, again, we need to ask. This is what Jesus told us to do. Ask God for deliverance from evil. And then trust Him to do what is right.

In this way, the Lord’s prayer guides us to know what to do when we are in the worst times in our lives. It tells us to trust God, to plead with Him for help, to ask Him not to put us in these terrible circumstances in the first place. Ultimately, we are placing our hands at God’s disposal, trusting that He will pull us through, eventually.

God and Mammon-- Matthew 6:19-24

Jesus and Money
It has been said that Jesus talked more about money than any other subject. While that isn’t precisely true, Jesus did say a lot about money, and it was an important subject. What is odd is that those who want to point out how important Jesus took money usually fail to teach what Jesus actually taught about money. Most teachers want to focus on financial stewardship, which is based on middle-class capitalistic principles, which Jesus never taught at all, nor even hinted at. Jesus’ attitudes toward money was much more radical, much more anti-capitalistic than we ever thought. The basics of Jesus’ teaching on wealth is found in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:19-34. However, you can also read quite a bit more in Luke 12, Mark 10 and Luke 16.
Before we talk about Jesus’ attitudes on wealth, we need to recognize that when Jesus spoke on wealth, he wasn’t just talking about money. Certainly money is an important part of wealth, but he also considered the possessions one had to be of equal importance. So while some might say that they have no wealth because their bottom line is in the red, if Jesus walked through their living places, he would point out that they had quite a bit of “liquid commodities”—physical possessions. When Jesus spoke of “Mammon” he was speaking both about money and what one could buy with money.

Where is your storage container?
Don’t collect important stuff on earth for your personal use. All stuff on earth breaks down, wears out, is destroyed or is stolen. Instead, if you give to the poor, God will keep the important stuff for you in heaven. There, your stuff never breaks down, wears out, gets destroyed or is stolen. Build up your savings account in heaven—for where you keep your stuff, that’s where your true self is kept.
Some of us have so much stuff that we need rooms just to store it in. Heck, some of us need to rent a storage facility just to keep the leftover stuff we can’t keep in the storage we do have. That might make sense, since for some of us our total storage is a backpack. But for others of us, we have parts of our living space not devoted to any kind of living, but for the storage of inanimate objects. Some of these objects aren’t important to anyone but us—sentimental items. Other items might be worth quite a bit to anyone. And so we keep such items safe—safe from theft, safe from wear and tear, safe from accidents. And if we lose these things, then we get really upset.
And Jesus says that these kinds of things—that upset us if we lose them—is where our heart is. He says that the center of our being is where we keep our most precious stuff. It has been frequently noted that our possessions in reality possess us. We work hard for our possessions—to keep them, to maintain them, to make them precious. But the problem with possessions is that they are doomed to extinction. Not only do they break down, fall apart and get stolen, but God will destroy them all when he returns. The possessions we have are part of this world, and they are to be set aside forever.
But what happens if the center of our being is found in storage? Then we will be destroyed along with the storage.
But Jesus gives us another option. He says that instead of having a savings account in an earthly bank or precious commodities in an earthly storage, we can actually keep our things in heaven, where God is the bulldog that protects our most precious things. How do we do this? No, we do not place our rare books and antiques on the altar and watch them lift up to heaven like Jesus ascending. What Jesus said is very practical. We give what we have to the poor. Whatever we provide for those who need it, God will save for us and give us back on the final day.
To keep things “safe” for oneself is miserly, stingy, greedy. The one who keeps for themselves alone is not righteous. The one who continually gives, shares provides use for others in need—this is the one whom God honors.

You are what you give
Your eye is like a window. What you do with your eye shows who you are. If your eye is open, generously sharing, then your body is enlightened. If your eye is shaded with covetousness—desiring to have what others have—then your whole self is darkened, spiritually dead. Thus if your “enlightenment” is pure darkness, you are completely blind.
This is a hard saying to understand. In Jesus’ day there was a saying about two kinds of “seeing”. One could have a “sound eye”, which meant to look with compassion and to be generous with those in need. Or one could have an “evil eye”, which meant to leer, to have a look of desire in one’s eyes—and ultimately to curse what someone else had. In Jesus’ day, an “evil eye” was a fearful thing and one could even curse with it by accident.
Jesus uses the ideas of these two kinds of “eyes” to talk about the kind of spiritual light you have. How can we tell who is really spiritual? How can we know who is really on the side of God? Jesus says to keep an eye on people’s “eyes”. The ones who are constantly open to others, compassionate and listening, those who are looking to assist others and give what they have to other’s needs—these people display spiritual light. You can know the light in their life, because of the open assistance they give to others.
But those who are looking for how much they can get, those constantly asking for something, those constantly on the lookout for what they don’t yet have—these are unsatisfied, uncontent, and ungodly. Jesus says that those always looking for more earthly things are those who do not trust in God, and so they do not have God. But more than that, they are spiritually blind. They wouldn’t know God or righteousness if He slapped them in the face. Those whose eyes are full of darkness are blind.

The god Mammon
No one can truly have two gods he is committed to. In the end, every man will display his love for one god by consistently serving him and he will display his contempt for the other by neglecting service for him. You cannot commit yourself to both the Father God and the god of Wealth.
Our society serves many gods apart from the One True Father. There is the god of Lust, the god of Education and the god of War. But quite possibly the most popular deity in the U.S. is the god Mammon—the god of Wealth. This god fills the marketplace and the industries of America. It is worshiped in the hearts of all who think that Money is the answer to all their problems. It is honored by those who fill their bank accounts and closets to overflowing, begrudging the needy only a paltry sum of the whole—if even that. Those who beg but refuse food because they only want cash are Mammon’s servants. Mammon whispers to all, “Money will meet all your needs,” while the wealthy admit that money hasn’t made them any happier.
Jesus is telling us that Mammon is an idol, a replacement god for the Most High God who truly provides our needs. Society won’t tell us that—it says that money is simply a tool, a resource, while they ignore their own hearts of lust for that which they don’t have. They ignore the fact that every media is filled with the call to covetousness—in opposition to the tenth commandment—and that contentment in God is as impossible to find in the church as it is in business.
Not only is Mammon a god, but Jesus is also saying that we have to make a choice. Either we can commit to God, or we can commit to Mammon. Either we will worship God or we will serve Mammon. Sure, there are many that do both—for a while. They make money and seek the American dream, and they also go to church and praise Jesus. For a while. But in the end they will face a conflict between their two gods. Their job will ask them to work during their church service. They will neglect prayer because they are too tired from working for money. They will take money they could give to the needy today and put it in a savings account for their future. A crisis will happen. And when it does, one god will be honored, and one god will be set aside.
Jesus makes it clear:
· The one who serves God gives to the poor.
· The one who serves God doesn’t store up treasures on earth.
· The one who serves God doesn’t seek new things to get.
· The one who serves God shares what they have with those who need it.
· The one who serves God makes economic sacrifices to be with Him and to worship Him.
Perhaps this sounds difficult. Perhaps it even sounds perverse to some. But we all must make a choice, and God’s demands insist upon our neglect of Mammon in order to focus only on God the Father. And he will provide for us more thoroughly than Mammon ever would.

How Will I Take Care of Myself? Matthew 6:25-34

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has just taught us how to live economically moral lives. But these principles aren’t easy to hear or accept. In summary, he just taught us the following:
§ We are not to store up money or possessions for future needs
§ We are not to seek what we do not have
§ We are to be content with what God has given us
§ We are to give all extra wealth to the poor
And, Jesus says, to ignore these principles is to be living under another god, Mammon, and to be hating the God who created us.
But given that we are in an economic system that is dependent on money and wealth to get along, and the fact that we are often told that we are “irresponsible” if we do not save for the future, or have a “steady job” that will continue to provide for us, then certain questions come up. Society’s voice speaks in our head, saying, “How will you provide for yourself? If you do as Jesus says, then how will you get along? What happens if a disaster happens in your life—if you have nothing to fall back on, what will you do?”
In summary, we might ask the question: “What about our economic future?” Jesus himself summarizes the question like this: “What will we eat and what will we wear?” Jesus is very aware of this question and actually spends longer answering them than in making his initial proposal.

More than Survival
You might be concerned because surrendering what we have to the poor seems like economic suicide. And not storing up for the future seems like irresponsibility. But listen to me—Don’t bother about your livelihood. Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink or wear. Your life, as a whole, is more than what you stuff in your mouth, isn’t it? And isn’t a living body more than having clothes to wear?
In answering the question—“What about our economic future?” Jesus first summarizes his main point of view—don’t worry about it. He is basically saying that our question about our how we will be taken care of, if we follow this seemingly foolish ideal of giving all of our extra to the poor, is a non-entity. We are being anxious, being concerned about something that will not happen. Fundamentally, we often use our economic concerns as an excuse to not follow God, or to do what He says—“Well, that would be a nice way to live, but it just isn’t practical. I mean, we have to live in the real world, and in the real world we need to provide for ourselves.” Jesus denies that this argument holds any water. He tells us not to bother about the “practical” matters.
Then Jesus begins defending his position. His first point is that economics isn’t the most important part of life. “Life” he says, “is more than food and clothes.” Jesus is trying to being us to the place where we look at more important things than simply taking care of ourselves, than simple survival. Jesus is saying that being generous to those in need brings us closer to God, and that being in God is more significant than simple economic assurance.

Eating like Birds, Clothed like Flowers
Study the birds. Do they go to stores, work to make money, or savings accounts? No, they rely on the Father in heaven to feed them—and somehow they get fed. Doesn’t God consider you more important than them? And tell me, which one of you increased your quality or quantity of life by being anxious about tomorrow’s food? And clothes—why bother about being concerned about them? Study wild flowers. You see how they spring up? They don’t haunt retail shops or have closets full of clothes, but even the richest woman in Beverly Hills isn’t clothed as beautifully as these. So if God provides clothes for flowers that pop up one day and are mowed down the next, surely he will provide for the mustard-seed-faith troupe.
Now Jesus gives us two examples which also supports his idea that we need not worry about our economic future. He tells us to pay attention to birds, and notes that they do very little for their food. They go out, they find it, they eat it. They don’t plant it, maintain an occupation, or have bank accounts. The bird’s life is very simple—why is this? Because they depend on God who will provide for them. God grants birds all the food they need. And do we think that God wouldn’t do less for us?
Jesus also speaks about wild flowers. Wild flowers do nothing for their clothing. All they do is live, and their “clothing”, adornment, is provided for them. How? Because the flowers depend on God who gives them all they need.
So, Jesus says, if God provides for the economic needs of birds and flowers, what about those who follow him? If God provides for these lesser beings—who have short life spans and are often carelessly killed—then certainly God will provide for those who follow and obey Him. For Jesus, this is a no-brainer. Why be anxious about economic matters, when God is so ready to take care of them? This is an area we just do not need to worry about—if we follow God, he will take care of us.
Jesus also makes another support point in the middle of these two examples. He states it simply—What has worrying about the future done for you? Has it given you a better life? Has it made you live longer? Or will the added stress on your life actually give you a shorter life? Does being anxious actually give you anything? So you might as well give it up and rest on God’s provision.

One Day At A Time
So stop worrying! Stop saying “How can you ask this of us? How can we provide for ourselves? How can we survive?” You are talking like unbelievers—those who don’t know that God provides for them. Your Father knows what you need already. Focus instead on God’s kingdom and accomplishing God’s righteousness, and your boss—the Father—will provide all these basics for you. So stop being concerned about the future. It is enough to be concerned about today’s trouble, and let the future go.
Jesus concludes his mini sermon in three ways. First, he says that worrying about our economic future is to think like the world—not believers in God. Believers in God know that He will provide and do not scramble around spending their lives doing what God is already doing. So, Jesus says, stop being practical unbelievers and act like believers in a compassionate, all-powerful God.
Second, Jesus says that we should stop worrying about our economic future because God already has our needs in mind. He already sees what we will need in the future, and He is ready to help us. Why fret about what we can’t see, when God already sees it? If God has already taken care of it, why worry about it?
Third, Jesus very wisely points out that today has enough trouble of its own. Jesus isn’t telling us not to worry about stuff. But today’s concerns are enough. We shouldn’t have to put our future on ourselves as well—especially because we don’t know what that future will actually hold!
If we are not to worry about our economic future, then we certainly are not to worry about our future…
§ Health care
§ Retirement
§ Family responsibilities
§ Education
§ Expenses
§ Child care
§ Social obligations
§ Entertainment
§ Security
Nor are we to worry about our past…
§ Enemies
§ Failures
§ Background
§ Lack of education
§ Burnt out careers
§ Unacceptable lifestyle

What matters is now—what is God calling us to do now, who is God calling us to be now, and the fact that God is promising to meet our needs both now and in the future. What is God calling us to? Lives of generosity, lives that focus on building up people in God, lives that leave the worldly concerns to the world.

Judging mercifully-- Matthew 7:1-5

Don’t condemn others, or else you will be condemned by God. With whatever kind of judgement you judge, that’s how God will judge you—either with mercy or with harshness. With whatever kind of measuring stick you use, that’s how you will be measured as well. You so easily point out the inconsistencies of your fellow Christian, but neglect the major sins you perform before God. You note the speck of dust in another’s eye, but neglect the two by four that is stuck in your own. There you go to your friend—“We’ve got to get rid of this speck of dust in your eye”, meanwhile, you’re hitting him with your two by four! Stop pretending you have no problems! If you get rid of your two by four, then you’d be able to see. And then you can help your friend get rid of his speck.

Send in the Judge
Let’s face it, judging is a part of life. We all, at one point or another, determine that someone we know is a “bad” person—whether it be Sadaam Hussain or a guy convicted of murder or the woman who cussed you out for some unknown reason. We determine in our own heads whether someone is safe or not, good for us or not, a nice person or not, someone who lives up to our own standards or not. This is part of being human, and there is nothing wrong with it.
God made all of us humans to be rulers. To be a ruler, one must be a judge. Thus, God does not reject us for judging—making decisions about people, things or beliefs. It is a part of our job.
It seems on the surface that Jesus condemns all kinds of judging—“Judge not” the teaching of Jesus says. However, we find that Jesus not only judged himself, but he also taught his disciples to judge others as well. They are to judge whether someone is to be a member of the community (Matthew 7:6), to determine whether a teacher is true or false in Jesus’ sight (Matthew 7:15-20), and to decide when a member of the community should be separated from the community for a time (Matthew 18:15-17). The leaders of Jesus’ community are supposed to be judges. Is this a contradiction? Jesus’ people are supposed to judge, but not judge? Let’s take a closer look at Jesus and his teaching on judging and see what he really means:

Different Kinds of Judging
When Jesus says “do not judge”, he qualifies his statement every time. In other words, he doesn’t really say “do not judge”, but he says, “be careful how you judge.” Yes, Jesus recognizes that we are to judge—that is how we are made and it is part of what we are appointed to do by God—but we must take great care of the manner in which we judge.
In order to judge correctly, we must show mercy. Judgment is evil without mercy. God is the judge, but he judges with mercy. Satan is also a judge, but he judges without mercy. What is merciful judging?
¨ Merciful judging does not judge by their own opinions, but by God’s standards. (Matthew 7:21)
¨ Merciful judging checks out the facts, and makes sure they are true. (Matthew 18:15-16)
¨ Merciful judging looks to see if there are any circumstances that makes a seemingly evil act actually good. (Genesis 38)
¨ Merciful judging never punishes harshly or quickly. (James 1:19)
¨ Merciful judging recognizes that God can change anyone, if they are willing. (Luke 15)
¨ Merciful judging always provides an opportunity for an evil-doer to change. (Luke 5:32)
¨ Merciful judging is always ready to accept someone if they have changed. (Luke 17:3-4)

This is the kind of judging that God does, but it is rarely the kind of judging we find on earth.
· Most people judge by their emotions, by the seat of their pants.
· We believe that if we’ve heard something, then it must be true.
· We believe that if it looks wrong, then it is.
· We believe that punishment should be swift and terrible, to prevent a repeat performance.
· We believe that once a person shows their evil ways, they will never change.
· We believe that an evil-doer should be punished, not given an opportunity to change.
· And we believe that no matter how it looks like a person has changed, they are still basically the same person.
And it is by these standards that we judge others. Yet these are not the standards of God’s, but of the earth. These are the standards of the world. And where did the world get these standards? From Satan. As soon as Satan became the ruler of this world, he imposed his standard of judgment on the world. And his propaganda machine is so powerful that all of us, to a certain degree, believe it.
However, we must be fair. After all, if we are going to judge others on this basis, then we also should be judged this way. But we have to think about it carefully—do we want to be judged on the basis of innuendo and other people’s opinions? Of course not. Do we want to be judged on how our actions looked, rather than what they really did, or what we really intended? Of course not. Do we want to be punished harshly for every minor action we’ve done? Of course not. If we have truly repented, and changed our ways, do we want to continue to be condemned, to constantly be labeled as an evil-doer for the rest of our days? Of course not. But that’s what we will have if we refuse to judge by mercy, and instead judge by the standards of Satan.

Results of Judging
Jesus says we need to recognize the consequences. However we judge others, that is how we will be judged by God. If we want to condemn others, to be harsh against them, to determine what they are like based on rumor and innuendo, then we have no right to complain if God and others do the same to us. If we condemn the unrepentant, if we never give people the chance to change and never forgive them, then God will treat us the same way.
How will God treat us as we treat others?
§ Every time we pray, God does not see our positive actions, but the actions that condemn us. Our prayers are stopped—why? Because we have judged others without mercy.
§ We will not receive all of the blessings of the Holy Spirit. We will live in fear, in bitterness, in rejection—why? Because we have judged others without mercy.
§ We will not understand true love and wonder for all of our lives why we seem so empty, so needy—why? Because we have judged others without mercy.
§ God will not grant us wisdom in our choices, but we will be controlled by our desires, our emotions and our foolish neediness. Why? Because we have judged others without mercy.
§ We are judged for all eternity. We will not enter God’s kingdom, but we will be eternally dishonored and hated. Why? Because we have judged without mercy on earth.
Needless to say, judging is a serious business. Judging by the earthly standard is the major sin that deceives us thinking that everyone else has problems, but not us. It effects our relationship with others, it effects our relationship with God and it effects our very well-being. Perhaps you've never considered your practices in judging. Let me suggest a few steps:
a. Don’t fool yourself by thinking you don’t judge. You do.
b. Think of the times you were angry—what were you angry about, how did you react, was anyone emotionally hurt?
c. Now look over the two ways of judging—which one of these were you most like? How can you improve your anger or judging so that it is more merciful?