Even as Christians it is easy to get caught up in this world, striving for "success" and miss the mark of our high calling in life, which is to spread God's love each day to those around us. Daily reflecting and thinking about where we are going and what we are doing takes deliberate thought and action, kinda like swimming upstream. We cannot just float, or we will be swept downstream in the currents of life without even realizing it.
Having traveled overseas, it seems easier to see a bigger view of all the material stuff that we as Americans have, even when we think we do not have much! We are inundated daily by our surroundings to want more, and to pile up for ourselves instead of storing up treasures in heaven.
In Matthew 6:20 the scripture admonishes those who trust in earthly gain and encourages us instead to store up treasuries in heaven. Then Jesus adds: "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." http://bible.cc/matthew/6-19.htm
Isaiah 55:6-9 also speaks of God's ways being higher than our ways, saying his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. In humility and humbleness let us serve the Lord. As a child is to a parent, trusting, though rarely understanding, help us to follow God's commandments and look to him the author and finisher of our faith. Ultimately he will judge us all for everything we have done, said, thought or whispered. He sees our heart and knows our thoughts. He alone is the only one we will have to answer too.
Our prayer each day, that can help us keep the course in this fast running stream of life, is also what he also taught his disciples, "Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power forever." Amen.....
