Hope-Full Heart

September 30, 2021
Midweek study with Pastor Edith
Matthew 6:19-34

Premise: “There is Gold in the Garbage” In our series inspired by God’s Word and Max Lucado’s book Just Like Jesus, I’ve come upon a very difficult teaching that I believe has to be from the Lord, because a human would find any number of ways to get around this truth. What I’m talking about is finding “Gold in the garbage” the world tries to heap on us. The “garbage” the world dumps on us, whether it be by the leadership that has been given the authority over us, or by folks we don’t even know who somehow are bent on making life on this earth very difficult, or even by well-meaning people we know well in our day to day living. The “garbage” of which Max Lucado writes is the stuff that tries to stuff itself in our minds so as to create a garbage dump of anxiety, worry, anger, frustration, and fear, just to name a few.

In looking at the way Jesus chose to deal with such “garbage”, Max writes; “What everyone else perceived as calamity, he saw as opportunity. And because he saw what others didn’t, he found what others missed” (pg. 128 Just Like Jesus 1998-Billy Graham Library Selection). Take a look at the scripture reference for this week and you will find Jesus acknowledging that all of these emotional responses to life are pretty common and yet he calls his followers to; “seek first his kingdom”. It doesn’t take too much time in the Gospels to realize that Jesus understood, anxiety, worry, anger, frustration and fear, not to mention total abandonment by those who professed love for him, and yet, he pressed on to show us the way to love God and because we love God, we can love others no matter what “garbage” we feel comes our way.

Remember, there is gold in the garbage if we will look for it, because God can and will use all things for his glory and our good if we can just readjust our focus away from ourselves and onto the Father and those he chooses to place around us.

AMEN