Women of Warren Vlog – Proper Place

hello i hope you are having a great morning before we jump into the word this morning i want to be sure that you are aware that we are going to host prepare him room on tuesday december the third both at 9 30 in the morning and 6 30 in the evening this is a virtual event we hosted it last year and this year jennifer rothschild is going to be the speaker and she is just going to help us pause our hearts and gaze at jesus in the middle of a busy christmas season i sure hope you can be there we have posted on social media those registration links and how to get more information so we've been learning together the past several sundays about having a heart of gratitude Specifically, how to do the will of God by giving thanks in all circumstances, according to 1 Thessalonians 5.18. So I've been prayerfully pondering with the Lord, what is it in my heart that can keep me from being thankful? What barriers exist in my heart and life that keep me from doing the will of God by giving thanks in all circumstances? And one of the things that he has showed me is that I have a tendency to let the other things in my heart and in my life get out of their proper place. Even good things, but I let them get bigger than they are supposed to be. Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 5 says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. This is probably the prayer and the scripture that I use most often as I pray over my children because I just think if this is true of their heart, if they love the Lord their God with all their heart, so much else in their lives will fall into its proper place. And the same is true for me. When my heart is full of love for my Savior, the other extra blessings in life, they'll stay in their proper place. And my heart is ready for the truth of Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, to intentionally fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. And as I fix my eyes on Jesus, as I gaze at him as my heart is full of love for him, I then have awe and wonder and gratitude over the remaining truth of that verse that says that Jesus, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. as I marvel over the truth of the gospel gratitude that's my only that's my only proper heart response as my heart is full of love for God and as I fix my eyes on Jesus regular life it has a lot of really good things that vie for our attention and how much more true is that as we approach a busy Thanksgiving and Christmas season. There are even more good things to do, more good things to attend. Our calendars become so overwhelmed and with good things. But the question is, are all of these things in their proper place? Or do we allow them to get bigger than they should be? Do we allow the holiday preparations, the Christmas, Thanksgiving dinners, all of the fun decorating and the shopping for gifts, do we allow those to get out of their proper place and take up too much of our heart so that essentially they block our heart from being able to clearly see our Savior, being able to gaze on him and marvel in the gospel and in the truth of who he is and what he has done, welling our hearts with gratitude. In our family, we love, or my kids especially, love weekend screen time. They soak it up, every bit of it. But we often have the conversation that while the screens are not in and of themselves evil or bad, they very easily can take up too much space in my children's hearts. And when that happens, the result, well, it's anything but gratitude. They begin to complain. They begin to compare with one another or even friends and they see the things they don't have. They begin to argue and again just everything except a heart of gratitude. And while it can be really easy for me to see that speck in the eyes of my children and what the screens do to their hearts when the screens get out of their proper place. The same is really true for me if I'm honest and reflective over the plank in my own eye. I love to be in the kitchen. I love all of the fun holiday baking and cooking and of course want everything to be so nice to enjoy with our family but I can let that get out of its proper place and gratitude can be the furthest thing that comes out of my heart and out of my mouth because I let the things get bigger than they should be. The good things get bigger than they should be. So maybe if we're struggling with a heart of gratitude, if we're struggling with doing the will of God by giving thanks in all circumstances, maybe it's an opportunity before us to ask the Holy Spirit to expose our hearts to us, to show us what have we allowed to get bigger than it should be? What have we allowed to get out of its proper place and distract us from having a heart of gratitude. Luke 12 34 says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So what misplaced treasures do we have? What good things are we valuing just a little too much that are preventing us from having a heart of gratitude? Fun around the holidays is great. There's a lot that we get to enjoy over these coming months and they're gifts, they're blessings, but through the power of the Holy Spirit, let's keep all of the preparations, all of the decorating, all of the cooking and baking, all of the shopping and finding that perfect gift for our loved one that they are just going to love so much. Let's keep all of those things in their proper place so that we can do the will of God by giving thanks in all circumstances. I hope you have a blessed week. I'll see you soon.

Originally published at warren.church.