Month: January 2025

Matthew 6:25 – “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? ²⁷ Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

²⁸ “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, ²⁹ yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. ³⁰ And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

³¹ “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ ³² These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. ³³ Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

³⁴ “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (NLT)

As you have grown as a disciple of Jesus Christ, what things have changed in your life?  Just as important as that question is, we must also ask ourselves what things have not changed in our lives?  These are questions that we all need to ask ourselves.  The answer to these questions can act as a fair indicator of the strength of our faith. 

Many Christians do, indeed, work hard at changing their lives for the better, yet many of those same Christians remain set on accumulating material possessions.  They work hard (not bad in and of itself) to have bigger homes, fancier cars, the best clothes.  Many even feel that to achieve these worldly things equals success. 

We should consider the question that Jesus asks when he spoke of our daily worries about these things: “Why do you have so little faith?”  Jesus then tells us that these kind of worries are what dominate the thoughts of unbelievers!  Faith in Jesus Christ is more than trusting in eternal life, it is trusting for life here and now.  Faith in Jesus should bring us to a place where we can let go of our worries about material things.  While it is not wrong to want to better our lives, we have to ask ourselves at what cost?

Today, let our thoughts be thoughts of rejoicing over our blessings, and not about what we do not already have.  Instead of worrying about what we might purchase, let us seek the Kingdom of God above all else. 

Posted by Ramón Torres

Matthew 6:19 – “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

²² “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. ²³ But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (NLT)

Recently, television shows that depict the lives of compulsive hoarders have become popular.  The reasons for compulsive hoarding are many: fear of throwing something away that may be useful in the future; emotional attachment to things; and even perfectionism have been listed as possible reasons.  In reality, we all are hoarders on some level.  We all accumulate a certain amount of ‘stuff’.  Our attics or basements often contain boxes filled with items we never think about, yet we save them for years.  We like our stuff, and we hang onto it!

If we are honest with ourselves, what we hang onto will not make much of a difference when our lives are over.  My wife, Lisa, and I used to attend estate auctions, trying to find a bargain or two. Many of those estate auctions were held by children whose parents had passed away.  It was sad to see what appeared to be the sum of someone’s life auctioned off for a fraction of the value that the owner had placed on their ‘stuff’.

I don’t think that Jesus objects to our possessing objects of sentimental value, but I do think we should all ask ourselves: what do we value most?  Consider verse twenty-one: “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”  Jesus did not say, where the desire of your heart is, there will be your treasure.  Many Christians would say that they desire the things of God, but their treasures tell a different story.  Our hearts (emotions) trick us into believing that some things are of great importance to us, but in reality they are not.  Our treasures do not follow our hearts, our hearts follow our treasure.

So, what are we to make of this verse?  We must understand that as Christians we must discipline ourselves – for that is what a disciple does!  We must discipline ourselves so that we treasure the things of God: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  These are the things of God that we should treasure, for these are the very things that the Spirit of God can and should produce in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23).  If we treasure these things, then our hearts will desire the things of God.  If these are not the things that we treasure, then as Jesus says in verse twenty-three above, the light we have is actually darkness.

Today, let us discipline ourselves to treasure the things of God, and we will notice that our hearts will desire these very things! 

Posted by Ramón Torres

Matthew 6:7 – “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. ⁸ Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! ⁹ Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
¹⁰ May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today the food we need,
¹² and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
¹³ And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.

¹⁴ “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (NLT)

Keep it simple – that’s what Jesus teaches us about prayer.  While this prayer seems simple enough, we should note that these simple words contain powerful petitions.  Consider asking that God’s will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.  We have often prayed this, but we should consider what we are asking!  In heaven there is no sin, no anger, no grudges held, no prejudices.  When we pray this simple prayer, we are asking that our lives be radically changed!  When we pray for God’s will here on earth, we are in essence asking that we have the strength to lay every selfish desire that we have aside, and instead humbly serve others.  We might worry about a worship service going a few minutes over an hour, yet will we be quick to leave worship in heaven?  We put conditions on our love for others, but no such conditions exist in heaven.  What radical words this simple prayer contains. 

Verse fourteen presents a huge challenge for many – if we refuse to forgive others, then God will not forgive us.  However, if we are truly seeking to live kingdom life now, then we will forgive.  If we refuse to forgive, then whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer, and ask for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, we are either lying or ignorant of what we ask!

God’s kingdom now is radical, and God wants us to live radical lives now.  Today, let’s live radically.  Today, let us allow someone to see the difference that God can make in the world by seeing the difference that God has made in us!

Posted by Ramón Torres

Psalm 30:1 – I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me.
You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.
² O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you restored my health.
³ You brought me up from the grave, O Lord.
You kept me from falling into the pit of death.

⁴ Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones!
Praise his holy name.
⁵ For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime!
Weeping may last through the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

⁶ When I was prosperous, I said,
“Nothing can stop me now!”
⁷ Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain.
Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.

⁸ I cried out to you, O Lord.
I begged the Lord for mercy, saying,
⁹ “What will you gain if I die,
if I sink into the grave?
Can my dust praise you?
Can it tell of your faithfulness?
¹⁰ Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me.
Help me, O Lord.”

¹¹ You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
¹² that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!

In this passage we can find parallels between David’s prayer and our relationship with God.  Verse one leads us to believe that David had been in distress, nearly overwhelmed by his enemies.  I doubt that any of us have been out battling Philistines, but I believe that we can relate to this feeling! There are times in our lives when it seems as if the world is closing in on us.  We are told in verses two and three that when David cried out to God, God rescued him. When we are faithful and cry out to God, God is there.  We may not recognize it at first, but like David in verse four, we can come to a place where can praise God for bringing us through our trials.  

In verse six, David admits that there was a time when he believed that he had achieved his success on his own.  He felt good about what he had accomplished.  He forgot the one who gave him life, and gave him the gifts to achieve success.  Here is a danger we must watch out for – thinking that we are self made.  God is the one who gives us our abilities.  When we are successful, we can be satisfied with our hard work, but we must not forget the one who has given us our abilities to work hard.  David recognizes in verse seven that it was God who gave him success, but he also admits that he felt secure as a mountain!  In other words, he lost his focus on God and felt it was all his own doing that brought him his success. 

Then in verse seven, David admits that he was shattered when God turned away.  I believe it was David who turned away, having found satisfaction in himself and not in the Lord.  How often we find it difficult to keep nurturing our relationship with God when all is well.  We forget who it is that has guided us along the path that brought us success.  James tells us:  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights (James 1:17 NIV).  Our successes in life, and what we have achieved, are gifts from God.  When we lose focus on the giver, we sometimes lose the gifts! 

In verses eight through ten, David recognizes his mistake, and cries out once again to God.  Having returned to God, David says that his mourning has turned into joyful dancing.  God wants us to dance!  God wants us to enjoy life, and even to enjoy our successes in life, but God wants us to maintain focus on the one who has made our success possible. 

Today and every day, let us be quick to praise God (verse 12), so that we will never lose focus on the giver of all good and perfect gifts!   

Posted by Ramón Torres