Evidently a bunch of stuff got stuck to my post.... I'm not sure why it added all that! I just meant to post a few sentences.

This chapter reminds me of the wretchedness of a divided heart.

A heart divided between pleasing God and pleasing man. As we see in each section regarding hypocrisy. A heart divided between pleasing God and pleasing self. Really, I think this whole passage echos of Jesus later words; "If you love... [_____] more than me, you are not worthy of me."

And the summary of the Law: "Love the Lord you God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself."

The love of self, the love of man's praise, the love of money. I know that my heart is easily entangled, with the love self, which seems to be related to anxiety and pride.

"Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name."
Psalm 86:11

I want a heart with no rival, one faithfully united in the fear of the Lord. It may be sufficient for salvation to love Christ more than anything else. And the details of how much struggle with entanglement our hearts may still have with the world without it being evidence of our unregeneracy, is between each of us and God. But this passage is an enforcement to me of Paul's words we heard in New Life this week.

"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,"
Phil. 3:13

And there are a lot of specific areas that could use some straining in this chapter for me.

This passage is a very convicting reminder that we as Christians are living our lives in the presence of Our Father God, and not for the world alone. Also interesting how the love of the things of this world causes problems for both the poor and the rich. The rich man loves his possessions so he stores them up and finds his value in this world. While the poor man can be so anxious about not having what he needs that he doubts God’s goodness and worries about the future. I’m Praying that we as a body, whether in poverty or abundance, would always be seeking first the kingdom of God!

Although often overlooked, I love that Jesus teaches us to pray with the body of Christ in mind! Note the pronouns: "11 Give (us) this day (our) daily bread, 12 and forgive (us) (our) debts, as (we) also have forgiven (our) debtors. 13 And lead (us) not into temptation, but deliver (us) from evil."

What a privilege of calling God “Our father”, it implies we have all the rights of sons and daughters, as adopted children of his, we can’t lose our inheritance, our privileges, but at the same time we have now the responsibilities as his children; “Our father” also makes us think about the vast spiritual family we have as believers, glory to God for the privilege he gave us to call him “Our Father”. Dios les bendiga!

It's amazing how often I manage to mess up "do not be anxious about your life" by tagging on an implied "except for the things you're pretty sure you can control on your own". Instead of only being willing to cede control of the big/impossible things to God, I need to trust him also in the routine parts of life and not believe the lie that I can handle those just fine on my own.

This passage is so convicting! How easily I can get off track and do things for the wrong reason, such as recognition from others. Yet, my focus should be on seeing God recognized/ glorified through my life... Not self. I pray that Christ will increase and I will decrease.

Theme Summary: In the Kingdom of our Father, citizens look in faith to their Father in Heaven for what they need, for their reward, for their righteousness; hypocrites will play at faith and service to God but serve other masters, looking elsewhere for their praise, reward, and justice, laying up treasures on earth, and being anxious for what they should trust God to provide.

Oh, that I would not be a hypocrite, but have genuine faith in the Father, and service to the Father.

Amen Kelly, I want to just snap back at this person that has and continue to cause harm. This person does a lot of damage and I keep praying.
(another subject) Selfishness is a big issue. Everyone wants recognition from then to now. I must submit to Christ, examine why I would have selfishness in any area of my life. ie Check myself.

These are good reminders!

Last night, Bruce talked about our sanctification from 2 Tim 2 and reminded us that to be useful to the Master, we must be pure. Today we read from Matt 6 that Jesus exhorts us to be single-hearted. To be useful to the Master we cannot love God and money (or stuff). It's my prayer for us all that we would be lovers of Jesus, untainted by the allures and comforts of the world.

3 times we are told "do not be anxious." I can become anxious about so many things which reflects a lack of trust in the goodness of my Lord and His ability to care for me. The cure is to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and trust Him for the things I can become anxious about. I am thankful that the Lord cares so much for me.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light..." How often I focus on what my struggle/issue/pain before me (darkness) instead of the source of light (the Lord). A healthy spiritual body needs a constant focus on the Light instead of walking around in the darkness of this world. I need to watch what earthly things I focus on, discern what is dark and not keep looking at it, focus on things of heaven and light (Philippians 4:8-9). Lately I have had a challenging work relationship that keeps irritating me and drawing my attention to it, and I am irritated because I cannot control that person and change them! Lord, I pray that I would accept your sovereignty and turn my focus on YOU so that this irritation is replaced by Your light, that I would reflect that light, with gratitude for your sovereign plan so that i can respond in love and not anger. Praise you for pricking my heart this morning, oh Holy Spirit, how I love your convictions.

The earthly treasures we teach our kids about (Money, power, possessions, etc) are obvious, but the Holy Spirit continues to reveal new treasures that I store up in my heart that I didn't even know were there (desire for control, feeling of accomplishment), and are preventing me from running my race as well as I could be. They are not bad things in and of themselves, but when they interfere with my contentment with God's sovereignty over my life, they become entanglements.

Three times in the first half of his chapter, Christ talks about how God sees what is done in secret. It’s not about what we do, it’s about why we do it (for ourselves or for Him). I have got to stop thinking about myself and think of Him alone.

14-15 Forgiveness should define us. We should forgive our brothers freely, even if they never ask for forgiveness. There are so many sins of ignorance I’ve committed against God for which I haven’t asked forgiveness, and yet He forgave me. I should forgive in this same way.

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.[
What a wondrous thing that we not only can ask to be forgiven of sin, but we can ask to be protected from sin! We can freely ask that God will enable us to not sin and to keep us away from it because we have been freed from the power of sin. How often I just get busy and forget to start my day asking for God's strength to do right.