Matthew 6:19-24
Treasures in Heaven
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Matthew 19:1-12
Divorce
1When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?"
4"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
7"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"
8Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
10The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."
11Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."
Psalm 119:105
Following God in Life
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path.
God gives us free will to think, choose, and do the things we decide to do each hour of each day...Jesus tells us that when we make these daily choices, we often have a competing desire or desires that affects our lives...When there is a desire for money (or many of our other desires we have) that compete against God that is not a good thing...When our eyes become focused on something, and it becomes a regular thought, and we continue to focus on that desire, that thought has a way of working itself into our lives...So if we are constantly thinking about money, it is competing against God and that is not good...We then drift from God and more towards that competing desire...
Probably the greatest love next to our LORD is our spouse...When Jesus teaches us on divorce, we can find some similarities in this teaching, to His God and money teaching...When we are married to a loving partner in our wedding, and then we meet another one later who we think is better or different than the one we are married to, then they become competition for our current spouse...When our eyes become focused on the new partner and they become a regular thought of ours, that thought has a way of working itself into our lives...So, if we are constantly thinking about a someone new that we have met, it is competing against our married partner and that is not good...We then drift with our thoughts and more toward that new desire...
Trying to satisfy all our personal desires, at times can be troublesome in our lives...That is why we must be on guard with our desires...Desires are fleeting, and our Father is eternal...These fleeting desires of earth make us drift from God...But earthly desires seem constant, and they seem to change (in us)...We buy something or get something we have desired, and have it for a while, then often we seem to desire something else...We are always looking to satisfy our next desire, the next thing, we are looking for...We often desire things, we do not have or own...We are constantly looking for something -that next thing...St. Augustine says that our hearts only have a desire that God can fill...St. Augustine says “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee."...In our heart is a void, until we find Him...In this God void of the heart, it cannot be filled with things on earth like money, cars, sex, drugs, alcohol, the next thing or that next desire...That "God void desire" can only be filled by God, and His love...These other earthly desires are transitory and do not last...They rust, they mold, and they wear out...But we do our best to fill this void in our heart for God, with earthly things over and over again and throughout our lives...
When our lives are completely focused on God, He keeps our thoughts and our conscious on the right things...When God is first in our lives, we have a better understanding of the other things in our lives...When we follow Him and make Him the Lamp unto our feet, and the Light for our path in life -the void starts to fill...