Pursuing spiritual matters outside the box can be a wallet of a good thing.
While a student at the Johns Hopkins University, I had a friend who pondered uniquely about stuff I didn’t think about.
He would ask me questions like, “Do ya’ll roast pigs in Texas? No? Maybe we could do one in Baltimore.”
David was from North Carolina and I was from Texas. Apparently, pig roasting was very popular where he grew up. He liked to equate both Southern states as if they were practically the same. (Even though they aren’t super geographically close.)
He also thought outside of the box.
David used to walk me home after class and then we’d part ways. But one day, he wanted to show me something. So we sat down outside on the grass in front of Gilman Hall.
“People are more important than material things,” declared David. Then David proceeded to pull out his wallet. He took out everything (except for his drivers’ license and credit card).
“Here, I want you to have everything in my wallet. None of this is important to me as much as people.”
David is more than 6 ft tall and his palm span is much wider than mine. He poured everything from his wallet into my hands.
A school pic of a blond-haired boy with glasses (him). A Duke basketball game pic with his best friend. David lived right next to Duke University. Several Duke paraphernalia favs were staring back at me.
I could barely hold his wallet contents without dropping…..this was just David being his outside the box self.
But let’s take a look at what he said, with a modification.
“Jesus is more important than things.”
In a prior devotional, we explored how to counter the enemy’s plan of doubt against us. Faithfulness of God. Freedom in Christ.
But God also equips us with a third tool to war against doubt: Depositing our hope and our heart’s deepest desires into Christ.
Like sweeping everything in the wallet of our lives into the hands of Jesus. Placing our hope for the outcome of our decisions and dreams in the palm of a heavenly God……instead of pouring our hope into the temporal results of our flesh or the world.
“Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” (Matthew 6:20-21)
Hope is a treasure. If you store your hope in the wrong place, it will be compromised by entities you don’t want messing with your treasure. Moths break down valuables. Rust break up valuables. Thieves break into valuables. The payoff of heavenly storage: if you place your treasure in heavenly hands, you get heavenly protection.
If we place our hope in Jesus, we won’t open a door for satan to attack us using doubt and then disappointment. Disappointment with external responses, realities, and relationships. Disappointment in people and problems unresolved. Disappointment in circumstances and conditions out of our control. Disappointment in unfulfilled plans and unfruitful progress out of our reach. All of the above can lead to doubt in God’s future for us.
So grasp this wallet of your life. Give the contents of it over to God. Position your deepest hope for the goodness and goals you are yearning for in His hands. Think outside your spiritual box and surrender.
Disappointed people become doubting people. But trusting people trust in the Real Truth.
©️2021 Breathe Truth