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Abundant Simplicity | Chapter 1 | Abundant Life With God

So much of what really matters has little value in our economy. 

Jesus said it this way: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:19-21

Those last words keep ringing in my ears... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where is my heart?  What things or people or possessions or ways of thinking do I treasure?

What am I holding on to? 

The author of Abundant Simplicity, Jan Johnson, challenges us to experiment with the prayer of self-awareness at the end of Chapter 1.  

Search me, O God, and know my heart. 
Lord show me my heart.  Test me and know my anxious thoughts that drive me to distraction, to controlling behaviors, to fixing... to self reliance and a lack of trust in You.  Lord, see if there is any offensive, ostentatious ways in me and lead me first to you side... to rest in the simplicity of sitting with you and soaking in your presence.  (my paraphrase of Psalm 139:23-24) 

As I've prayed and gone about my week, I've been trying to pay attention to my hands.  Are they open? Are they tightly closed? Do they hold things (figuratively or literally)?

Could it be in these moments when I catch myself with closed hands -- I am finding some of the very things I treasure? 

Today and throughout these next 12 weeks, I will consciously try to loosen my grip.  My simple prayer-- Lord, show me my heart and give me the courage to look deeply at what you reveal.  YIKES!~ I think I'm ready.


The first week of teaching is online.  Give it a listen!

 

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