Preoccupied

I am so excited about a new ministry that I am involved in. Our church started providing a weekly memory verse for every member and attender. These verses go along with the sermon series that our pastor is preaching. I have been ask to write a devotional each week to go along with the "Strength Training" verse. I am going to be posting the devotionals here so that more people can join with us in "hiding the Word of God in our hearts."

Colossians 3: 1-2 "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth."

I remember as a young adult being preoccupied with some pretty shallow things. One house we lived in while in seminary had no curtains. That was a great source of concern for me. We were living north of Dallas, Texas and Gene was driving back and forth to Fort Worth. He would stay overnight a couple of times a week for classes, and I was at home with a new baby. We barely had enough money to pay our rent and utilities and we lived on peanut butter and jelly. There were days when Gene was in Fort Worth that I would lay on the couch with blankets completely covering both me and Will simply because we couldn't afford to turn the heat up. Still, I was upset that there were windows everywhere in that house with no curtains. This seems incredibly silly to me now.

There are many times when we as followers of Christ Jesus get our focus on things that are temporary and of no real value. These verses remind us to "seek" the things that are above, to "set" our minds on things that are above so that we don't become caught up in things that really won't matter a year, five years, or ten years from now. Our minds need to be "set" or focused on the things that will be of significance when we stand before Jesus Christ and give an answer for how we lived while on earth. The only possible way that we can accomplish this is by continually immersing ourselves in scripture and as the psalmist advises, "hiding it in our hearts."