Booked Up!

This time alone with God has shown me how much we strive, and are eager to stress ourselves out to a point of exhaustion over making money! The majority of Americans are working several jobs to make ends meet, not because of greed (which plays a factor in the stress), but it’s more because of who we serve!

Psalm 95:3-8 AMPC

3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights and strength of the hills are His also. 5 The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land. 6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker [in reverent praise and supplication]. 7 For He is our God and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Harden not your hearts as at Meribah and as at Massah in the day of temptation in the wilderness, 9 When your fathers tried My patience and tested Me, proved Me, and saw My work [of judgment].

The stress comes from a hunger that does not ever satisfy, because the more we have, the more we want; and it ends up in a vicious cycle of more. Before you know it, you have accumulated “stuff” you thought would fill that void or hunger inside. The truth be told, it just causes more frustration and anxiety! 

My Mother at her 80th birthday party with her
Great Granddaughters

Family is being pushed aside as well as important relationships, which over time, has been torn down; and will take time to rebuild! This holds true mainly in our homes and with our children and spouses. Relationships are important and necessary, especially if they are built upon truth in the Word and faith in God!

Nehemiah 2:17-18 NKJV

17 Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” 18 And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to this good work.

Now I am not saying do not work, or buy things, I am saying do not make things a priority over your family and you look back in that rear view mirror and have regrets over what you should have done. The past is gone, but it can be restored, if you are willing to put in the time and effort it takes to rebuild. 

Now is the time to sit back, look around and be thankful for your family, your house, the food you have, a car (if you have one) and good health. It’s being “Grateful” and “Thankful” that keeps your heart and mind focused on the good you do have so you won’t be tempted to covet the things your neighbor has - which doesn’t make them happy either! It weakens our Spirit to compare and lust after things when Jesus said: 

Matthew 6:19-34 AMPC

19 Do not gather and heap up and store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust and worm consume and destroy, and where thieves break through and steal.

20 But gather and heap up and store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust nor worm consume and destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal;

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your entire body will be full of light.

23 But if your eye is unsound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the very light in you [your conscience] is darkened, how dense is that darkness!

24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in).

25 Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?

26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?

27 And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature or to the span of his life?

28 And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.

29 Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these.

30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?

31 Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?

32 For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

33 But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

34 So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.

God will provide for you and it will be extremely better than you could have imagined or purchased. He gives us His best that cannot compare to anyone or anything and it will be given to you without strife or reproach in due time!

ONLY GOD CAN SATISFY!