What do you want?

What Do You Want?

by David Brenneman 

"And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.  If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him." John 12:23-26.

Simplicity is often the best as I have been told.  I have lost track of how many times I have told many people that coming to Christ, living for Jesus, isn't complicated.  Adults complicate it.  

It was Jesus who said that we must come as a child.  Child-like faith is how it's often described. 

A child might have one or two "but what about..." moments but not many.  They simply just believe. 

Are your wants getting in the way of what Jesus wants for you and of you?

Have you allowed life's circumstances to cause you to run from or even to simply deviate from the life in Christ you are meant to be living?

I hope that my life is one that the Father will indeed honor, as Jesus said in this passage.

I am not one to like complicated schedules or scenarios to deal with on any kind of daily basis.  

As we used to say way back in the early days when the company I worked for was called Sensotec..."What do you want, where is it, when do you need it".

Simplicity.  And it worked.  That small company started out in a garage and grew into a 47 million dollar a year business in a very short time.  The original owner did a lot to take care of his people.  Suffice to say...the company that bought them knew nothing about taking care of the people.  It's not even a mere shadow of its former self. 

This to say...living for man's idea of success in the world will leave you wanting.  Living a life where indeed your treasures are stored up in Heaven is really where its at.

Seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness means that you value His business in this world over your own business in this world.

Jesus said what the Father’s business was.  He said that we should look up and see that the fields are white with the harvest. To ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers into His harvest. 

The harvest He refers to are people.  The treasures in Heaven are people. 

The treasures in Heaven are nothing to do with your accomplishments or accolades of people here.  There's no use for those things in Heaven where the praise and worship of God are found for all eternity. 

Is what you're driving yourself to accomplish the same thing as what the Spirit is wanting you to accomplish?

Is what you desire the same as what Jesus desires for you?

Really...what do you want?

Jesus once asked a blind man what did he want.  Most would agree that the question seemed out of place.  Why would a blind man cry out to Jesus with the obvious hopes of being healed have to be asked what he wanted?

Why did Jesus tell us of asking, seeking, knocking with regards to prayer?  

We're in a relationship with Jesus. 

A personal relationship with Jesus. 

He isn't our employer. 

He isn't just our best buddy. 

He isn't a very good acquaintance. 

He isn't our butler.

He certainly isn't our personal genie.

He is to be our personal Lord and Savior.  We are in a personal relationship with Him.  Whatever is important to Jesus should be what's important to you. 

Watching out for traps and snares in this world is crucial.  We are often enticed into things we most certainly should be avoiding.  Look at what became of King Hezekiah.  His acts after he was healed by the Lord Jesus...really differed from what his life was like when he became King. When the words of the enemies of God were said it both angered him and caused him distress. When the judgment was pronounced of what will become of his kingdom because of his actions...it actually pleased him to know he wouldn't see it.  

There's been many times when I wonder if my prayers were too self-serving.  That had I stayed the course of where the Spirit was leading and what was set by Him before me to be doing...what would that have looked like?

Was reading Psalms 139 this morning too.  He knows my thoughts from afar.  

THINK about that.  Over 8 billion people on this world.  Yet He is intimately aware of my thoughts. Your thoughts.  The thoughts of the trillions in Hell. The trillions in Heaven.  

Are you content with your life?

Are you wanting what you want or are you wanting to please the One who gave you eternal life in Jesus Christ?

Success in the world and success in the eyes of God aren't at all the same thing.  

We are told in the Bible that we have not because we ask not. We also ask with wrong motives because we'll just spend it on ourselves.  

What do I often pray for?  

I pray for all who God brings to finding this blog or the Facebook version of it. I pray for God's help to get out of debt so that we can do more to help others.  I have no desires to be rich.  Too much evidence to support the Word of God's statements that it corrupts people.  I pray for my Wife.  I pray for my Pastor and his family. I pray for my Father in the Faith and his family.  I pray for those in the groups from church that we attend.  I pray for past, current and future coworkers for salvation.  My prayers are people-centric.  Jesus's mission was to seek and save the lost.  He sent the Apostles into the world to pick up where He left off. Workers into the harvest. 

What do you want?  Are your wants, your desires, what God wants of you and for you?  Is He really the forgiver of your sins and the LEADER of your life?

Just what would your treasures in Heaven look like?  

"but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”" 1 Corinthians 2:9.

It really is simplicity. This life in Christ. 

All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.