What's Shaking?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seismometer

Society teaches us to pursue all sorts of things for happiness - BMWs, Mercedes, Ferraris,  that bigger house, that infinity swimming pool, that vacation home in the mountains, that Key West home, that new set of TaylorMade golf clubs, that Italian shotgun, those Christian Louboutin red sole shoes, that Giorgio Armani purse. The list goes on and on. But what I have found is all of those things are temporary and the happiness they bring is fleeting.

This is what Jesus was talking about when He said "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19

Now I'm not saying we can't have nice things, and that we should live in a state of poverty. Not at all. But what I am saying is looking to possessions and money to provide happiness is pointless and temporary. Instead we should be pursuing Jesus as the source of happiness. Because the joy we find in a personal daily relationship with Him is eternal. 

After my second divorce, I chased after temporary happiness in relationships. Again it was temporary and fleeting. A good weekend or a enjoyable evening was quickly over and unsustaining. Why? Because I was trying to fit a relationship with someone into a hole in my life that only a relationship with Jesus could possibly fill. Does this mean we should pursue a dating or marriage relationship? Not at all, but only after we pursue a personal relationship with our creator. Pursue Him with reckless abandon. Read His Word daily, talk to Him, and then listen. Don't just pray before a meal or before you go to bed. Have an ongoing conversation throughout your day. 

God wants to remove the things that are temporary and provide you with the eternal, if we are willing to listen to that still, small, quiet, calm voice of truth that keeps nudging us - that thought that doesn't seem like us that is suggesting doing something good, something contrary to our fleshly pursuits, something that's not quite comfortable, something that when we examine it against His Word aligns with His will. 

I encourage you to listen to that still, calm, quiet voice that calls you out of your comfort zone, that calls you to do good when it isn't easy.

"See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.' Now this, 'Yet once more,' indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:25-29

When things are shaken up in our lives, consider that maybe He is shaking things to remove the things that are barriers to your relationship with Him, so "...that the things which cannot be shaken may remain."

Blessings,

Allen