Reflection Riches: Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Riches: Reflection Questions

1.     Do you see hope as present now in the face of great disappointment, or only as later in time? Why?

2.     What do you consider to be our present day riches that cannot be taken away?

3.     Do you tend to react to situations from your mind or heart first? How do you put them in balance?

4.     Why do you think “seeing” with our heart needs to come first?

Share: What is one way you have found to see with your heart?

Riches: Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Ephesians 1:18, “so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.”

When devastation of any kind hits we tend to shut down. Acute stress response according to medical experts can be reactions such as fight, flee, fix, freeze, or faint. And stress can happen on a daily level within relationships. All of these reactions touch our emotional core and usually the next step in a pro-active choice is to fix it or repair or make a plan to re-build. Not emotional—logical.

We look with our eyes at the damage both short term and long term and initiate plans with determination and will power. And often skip over the heart because the immediate pain may be too difficult to face.

Yet that is exactly where the Lord wants us to begin—with the eyes of our heart. To first recognize that His love and mercy never end and are just as present today as yesterday and will be there again tomorrow.

Then to first choose love and mercy in healing before building new foundations that could still harbor anger and bitterness and hardheartedness within the core.

Nehemiah is well known for rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and confronting severe opposition from enemies, including those within his own countrymen. Yet before he even began the vision he spent long months in prayer seeking God’s word first. Seeking God Himself. Trying to see through his own heart so as to match with the Lord’s version of inheritance.

A few months ago I heard a speaker give a church family of faith the same version of reactions to stress as the medical field did, but he added the most important other option: FAITH.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 94:14

“For the Lord will not abandon His people,

Nor will He forsake His inheritance.”

Kingdom Manna

Treasures

Mark 10:25, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

Wisdom, worthiness, now wealth. None open the door to God’s kingdom. Wondering disciples question who, then, can be saved? What qualifications are yet obtainable? Who can turn the key? No man.

But the illusion weaves on through rich gains. Build. Build bigger. Build better. Boast. Blinded by silver, by gold, by name.

Worlds of splendor Satan bartered with Jesus. All the kingdoms of the world are yours if you worship me. As if he owned God’s own creation to give. Assuming a status based on accumulation. Jesus replied, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” Satan left.

But what is impossible for man is possible with God. Bearer of hope, of mercy, of grace. Bearer of salvation.

Will I ever let go of my measures, Lord? Each time You plump my nest or praise my work I preen with pride. I forget Your call to be a faithful steward. To serve the people You bring into my life. To cater to needs through possessions instead of hoarding barns.

But then Lord, You startle me with outrageous potentials. Multiplying fish and bread. Walking on water. Nudging camels through needles. Crack open the door to Your kingdom. And true riches.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 118:20

This is the gate of the Lord; the

righteous shall enter through it.