Lenten Readings: Luke 12

Lenten Readings: The two-year Bible reading plan puts the Gospel accounts of Luke and John right between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Whether you're doing the reading plan or not, you can follow along on the blog and read daily meditations based on the accounts of Jesus, whose life and death we remember and cherish during this season of Lent. Check back every day starting on February 14 and until Easter Saturday.

Monday, February 26, 2018
READ Luke 12
MEDITATE on Luke 12:33–34, "Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." What would you say your treasure is?

REFLECT
God is calling us to live for Him and not for ourselves. Throughout the book of Luke, the Gospel is presented with its ramifications on how the marginalized, poor, and sick are all in God's sight and heart. We are being called to live in such a way as to be sensitive to the needs of those around us, and to be generous in giving to others to help meet those needs.

This chapter includes a foundational idea that allows us to live sacrificially: God loves us and will take care of us. But there is another issue beyond insecurity and that is our idolatry. Sometimes we do not want to give up our possessions (and Jesus says here not just to alter our future spending habits but to actually sell stuff and get rid of things we'd already bought), not because we are afraid of not having enough, but just because we are in love with our things. House? Car? Technology? Smartphone? The issue isn't so much what's in our lives as what's in our hearts. Let's put God first and see how everything else follows.

PRAY

Pray...about your stuff! Does God want you to let go because these things are idols to you? Did you pray about them before you bought them, or did you just give indulge your desire for things? Pray about how God wants you to follow Him going forward. And keep in mind how Christ left heaven and gave His life to give us a relationship with our Father in Heaven.