“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Matthew 13:45-46 (ESV)

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Matthew 6:33 (NLT)

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about these three verses this weekend. There’s a lot of good in my life. God has blessed me with a great job, an amazing family, the best friends I could imagine, and much more. But, in the midst of all this blessing, I’ve found restlessness stirring up in my soul—a dissatisfaction with my life and where I am in it. As I’ve tried to work through it and figure out why; I’ve come to some conclusions.

I think that when God blesses, it’s easy to get excited about the blessings and to feel a sense of arrival at what He’s given. That is to say, it’s easy to stop moving forward and think I’ve attained something when God blesses. The reality, though, is that God blesses because He is good, but the blessings He gives are never an end in themselves. They always are meant to point us to Him more fully by helping us see His goodness and grace.

As I mentioned, in my soul, there has been restlessness. I have been very dissatisfied even though I have so much. As I’ve been praying and thinking about why this is, God has really brought to my attention the above three passages. This is what I’ve come to realize: I have found a great treasure in Jesus Christ! By His deliberate choice to die to pay the penalty for my sin, I have been freed from the eternal damnation that my sin deserves. In the freedom given me, I have been liberated to live life now in total peace. That peace and joy, though, ought not to make me passive, but rather it ought to compel me strongly to live my life to please the One who has saved me.

My restlessness, I am convinced, has come from my knowing that my life ought to be spent as a sacrifice of gratitude to my Savior and desiring it to be as such, but still living in laziness. Recognizing this has reenergized me to want to give my entire life to Jesus.

Going back to the verses above, if I really believe that what Jesus did for me is as good as it is, then advancing the Kingdom of God ought to be my very top priority. Giving everything I am and everything I have is not extreme, but it’s is only right and reasonable. Finally, the beauty of giving everything, as noted in the last verse above, is that I can completely trust my God to provide for all of my needs along the way.

I am aboundingly thankful to God for His blessings, but I want them to compel me to love Him and seek Him and obey Him more and not let them slow me down. My prayer is that God would help me to hold everything loosely and always be ready to drop anything and everything for a more pure pursuit of Him.

Psalm 19:7-11

⁷The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
⁸the precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
⁹the fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether.
¹⁰More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
¹¹Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

God in His love for us, told us straight out in plain language what we have to do to have the best life that is possible. His commands to us are not burdensome, but rather they protect us and guide us to good.

This maybe kind of an odd passage, but it’s my VOD because I really like the heart behind it.

David realizes here that an offering to God (The Almighty!) is worthless if it doesn’t cost. This was pretty convicting to me as I read it. Being human, I am lazy; being raised to be sort of intellectual, I try to live lazily by outwitting my circumstances. By this I mean, I like to find ways to get the greatest returns for the least amount of effort. This can be good in business and other areas of life. It doesn’t, I don’t believe, transfer into serving God.

Here’s why: God looks at our hearts. If our hearts are unwilling to exert effort to worship Him, God’s not going to be pleased with our lives. Of course it’s not wrong to try to be efficient, but when our efforts to be efficient are only to appease our laziness, then there’s a problem.

For me this has been a tough realization because my laziness is so ingrained into me. Change will require God’s grace. That’s the point, though, I think.

(This verse goes well with the one above. I didn’t know where to include it, though, so here it is: Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship[reasonable service].”)

I was reading in Numbers. Toward the end of Numbers 9, it is talking about how the Israelites, while wandering in the desert after they left Egypt, would be led by God in the form of a pilar of cloud or a pilar of fire. Whenever the cloud or fire would move, they would move. Sometimes they would stay for a few days somewhere, sometimes a week, sometimes only overnight. But, they would always follow God where ever he had them go.

Verses 22-23 say, “Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. ²³At the LORD’s command they encamped, and at the LORD’s command they set out. They obeyed the LORD’s order, in accordance with his command through Moses.”

When I read this, it was somewhat convicting for me. It made me think, “Do I follow God like this–staying only at his command and moving only in order to follow him?” The reality, no doubt, is that I oftentimes do not.

As I thought further about it, I began to ask myself, why is it that I don’t follow God like this? I am convinced that the reason that I (and other Christians) do not follow God in this fully dependant manner is because it takes faith and faith makes us uncomfortable. See, faith is believing God when we aren’t sure of what will happen. I think all too often, I “obey” God by doing that things that I can understand and do on my own strength. Obeying God in this way doesn’t take faith at all–it just takes will. Obeying God when I don’t understand what he’s doing or why he’s asking me to do it requires me to really depend on God. This, friends, is real faith.

Someone once described it to me by saying, “Faith is putting yourself in a position, where if God didn’t come through for you, you would be screwed.” Now, that’s somewhat brash, but I think it is true. Am I willing to put myself out on the line to obey God and stop just doing what I already know I can do?