Reading: Luke 18:1-14

I go through all-too-infrequent times of intense, desperate prayer. My mind seems in that almost-perpetual state of calling out to God.

Such praying and such awareness of the spiritual battle is of such intensity as to be impossible to maintain for long. At least, that is what my experience has been.

I thought briefly along those lines this morning, before starting to read in Luke 18.

“And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (1).

That’s for me! God spoke to my need! (Should I be so amazed?)

I do my reading in my “hardware” Bible. Let me call up my computer Bible to see what cross references might come up to that part of the verse . . . .

“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36).

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:18).

“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2).

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

from Luke 18:8

A little bit more from Luke 18: Me. A. Sinner.

Reading: Luke 17:20-37

I live in a big house. I have a lot of stuff in it. Our property manager and our landlord require that we carry renter’s insurance. So if the house and the stuff burn, they can be replaced. (Well, that’s the idea, anyway!)

I’ve wondered what I would miss most if a fire consumed all the stuff we have. Would any of it be worth enough to me that I would risk my life to retrieve it from a burning building? No way, Charlie. My family and I are too valuable to risk for any other “valuable” like that.

Someday, fire will consume all stuff on this planet, my stuff included (if I’m still here and still own any of it). My renter’s insurance won’t do me any good then.

“In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back” (31).

Like the title says, First things first.

Do not let stuff endanger my safety.

That’s how I should live my life. No thing in this life is worth my soul. I purpose again to resist covetousness and materialism. I will continue fighting the urge to lay up treasures on earth. I want my mind and my affection set on things above, not on things of this earth.

from Luke 17:21

A little bit more from Luke 17: Give It Up for Jesus!