From A Park Bench - Value

When You Value Something You Treat It Differently.

Last week I took the plunge into the 21^st century and the world of portable technology and bought a Galaxy tablet. This wonderful little device cost a tidy sum for me and I got a protective case for it. The last thing I wanted was damage to my valuable new purchase.

We try to protect and take care of the things we value. Those things that are worthless to us we tend to neglect and treat badly. When you value something you treat it differently.

Now if you never read your Bible for the rest of your life and never prayed another prayer to God for the rest of your life or never tried to win one more person to Christ for the rest of your life then God would still fully love you, accept you and be pleased with you! 

Christ is united with every believer and your relationship with him is through his life in you not on anything you do to be accepted, but we glory in what we most enjoy. So the closer we get to God, the more our heart overflows with God’s grace, the more we retain the glory of God in our lives.

Misplaced values diminish the impact God has in our lives. It is not that God is any less; it is not that God is withholding things from us; it is that other things around us and in the world take our focus off God and onto our circumstances. As Andrew Wommack points out, “Most people place a higher value on circumstances or the opinion of others than they do on God.”

The greatest treasure in our lives is our living union with Christ. Living in the abundant grace of God that flowed from the cross.  Valuing Christ above all the other things we value will cause God to increase and ourselves and the world to shrink by comparison.

We are accepted, we are loved, we are holy, we are righteous, we are already blessed, and these are the greatest truths to value.