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April 03, 2023

Day 8: What Do You Treasure? | 12-Day Guided Prayer

Welcome to Day 8 of Our Guided Prayer

Note: This prayer meditation is first and foremost designed to be listened to, so we encourage you to listen to the audio as you read along.

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey Church on the Move family,

Welcome to our 12-day guided prayer podcast.

Today is day 8.

Take a moment to prepare yourself to pray over the next few minutes by putting away distractions, setting aside mental to-do lists, and finding a place where for the next 10 minutes or so you can give yourself entirely to the task of prayer.

See yourself placing any worries or situations outside of your control at the feet of Jesus.

Let’s begin by praying a simple prayer. If you find your mind wandering or it’s difficult to focus simply return to prayer by repeating this phrase. Take a deep breath, rest your thoughts on God and pray:

Bless the Lord, o my soul

And all that is within me, bless His holy name

Our prayers over the 12 days are based on reflections from the life and teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

Today we are going to pray in response to a portion of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 6:19-23.

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

What we treasure, what we hold most precious, what we value most, is where our hearts will be found.

Have you ever lost something precious to you?

Something that carries an immense amount of meaning or worth? Your heart is restless until you find it. St. Augustine famously said that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. Why?

Because with Him is where everything that our hearts long for is satisfied. With Him is where our hearts are truly safe. And when we trust God with what is most precious to us it’s safe with Him and it’s ultimately where we want to be.

Is there something that you treasure, that’s precious to you, that you’re not trusting God with? A family member? A relationship? Finances? Is it because you’ve placed more value on this than you should? We will find it impossible to trust God with the things that we value and treasure more than Him. Take a moment to talk to God honestly about this now.

In the next few verses Jesus starts talking about our eyes, the way that we see the world.

He says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light”. What we are looking at impacts the way we’re living. How is this connected to what we treasure? Has Jesus changed the subject? I don’t think so.

We will inevitably drift toward whatever has our attention. And we will begin to look like what we behold the most. Think about a couple that has been married for years. They almost begin to look like each other, mirror each others mannerisms, and talk like each other. The same is true of a child with a parent.

We learn what’s most important by who we watch, and what we observe. And this will inevitably impact what we treasure, what we think is most valuable. If we’ve entrusted everything to the Father, looking to Him, then the way we see the world will follow suit. We’ve already prayed about what we treasure and where our hearts are. Let’s take a moment to pray about where our eyes are.

What has your attention?

Social media? The news? Yourself? A situation at work or with family? Take a moment to imagine yourself fixing your eyes on God and away from the things vying for your attention and meditate on these words from Psalm 34:5.

Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed.

Now let’s ask God what He sees. Specifically, how does God see you? Did you know that God rejoices over you? That you are important and precious to Him? This might be hard to believe but believing this has everything to do with our ability to trust!

You are loved by God.

Listen to the following Psalm about God’s love and care for you and then take a moment to respond in prayer.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

For you are with me;

Your rod and Your staff,

They comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

In the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life,

And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

To end our time today, let’s pray together.

Father, every good and perfect gift comes from You. Everything that brings true lasting joy comes from Your hand. That means that everything we could possibly need or want is found in You and apart from You we have no good thing. Help us to trust You today. You are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Show us if there is anything we believe about You that is untrue that would keep us from trusting You.

Amen.

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