Wassup :D

Hey guys im in queensland at the moment so am kinda doing a rushed blog. Been on daydream island since friday with my dad. I'm loving the time we have together and i hope I can get closer to him because we dont get to spend much time together in melbourne. There's a saying that your time is the best gift you can give to someone. I've never really been that close to my dad and havent really been able to connect and open up to him. That's something I'm praying for and also working on in my own life. So often we wait for someone to open up to us, but maybe we should be the one opening up to them first. I heard a sermon in church a while back about us being the initiators. We dont need to wait for someone to show love to us before we show love to them. We dont need to wait for our parents to open up to us before we open up to them.
Our family is god's gift to us. We are with them for the rest of our lives. We might as well make our relationships be treasured and make them count.

Anyway enough of that, time to get to my devotions :D

Matthew 6

This chapter is huge! Something I love about the gospels is the amount of practical life lessons that are in them.

Matthew 6:1-4: Giving to the needy
Verse 1 warns us not to "practice your righteousness in front of others". Sometimes in serving God, I can fall into the trap of hoping people would see the "good works" that I do, when it shouldn't be about me or my ego at all, but all about Jesus and the glory of his name.

5-14: prayer
I've always been passionate about prayer and can't stand when it is neglected. The importance of prayer in a christian's life cant be denied. It's awesome that God already knows our requests before we even ask him (v8). The passage gives us an example of how to structure our prayers (v9-14)
- thanking god (9)
- His will to be done (10)
- Giving us our daily bread (the bible) (11)
- To forgive us and that we forgive others (12)
- Not to fall into temptation (13)



Observation

A recurring theme in this chapter is that we shouldnt live our lives to please others; we should live to please God. He sees our heart and what we do in secret, and that should be what matters most. Verse 1 warns us not to "practice righteousness in front of others to be seen by them". God is the one that rewards us. 
It reminds of me of the time when we used to set up the chairs after Fungus in the auditorium for the main service on sundays. That was just a background job that noone really took notice of, but God sees the heart behind it and rewards those who are faithful over little to be faithful over much. It all comes down to the servant-heart attitude. 

Another thing that strikes me is the passage about prayer. Verse 7 tells us not to "babble like pagans who think they will be heard for their many words". Sometimes we try to complicate our prayers and make it fancy, but I think that makes is less sincere because we're trying to put up a show. Something which I've learnt is to imagine we were having a conversation with Jesus in person, because thats essentially what prayer is; talking to God.

Verse 33 tells us to "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well". This is talking in the context of not worrying about our needs such as food/clothes etc. God knows that we need these things but our primary focus should be on seeking God's kingdom and will to be done. It ties with verse 20 which tells us to store our treasures in heaven. 
Humanity tends to build their kingdom here on earth, in the form of wealth, talent, power etc. 
There's nothing wrong with these things, as long as we know it is more important to set our eyes on heavenly treasures. So what are heavenly treasures? I'd imagine it to be things such as:
- Building our relationship with god
- Sharing love to others (sowing eternal seeds)
- Spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth

Application:
- constantly assess my motives/heart for any pride. I want to be someone that leads in humility and with a servant heart, not seeking to build my own ego but to build god's kingdom
-  simplify my prayers! and pray more of course
- Build up treasures in heaven. Invest in things which are eternal: (god, family, friends, people)


Prayer
dear jesus thanks for being my loving god. I dont deserve any of your love, and thats why its called grace. Sorry for my shortfalls and help me to grow in character and godliness. Help me love others like you love me, not being judgemental or proud, but being humble just like you are. Help this time with my dad be worthwhile and cherished, and help us get closer 
in jesus' name amen


There isnt any request that is too insignificant for god, because he loves us so much. He loves our brokenness, because it is an area he can mend