Going Deeper with God

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21 ESV)

This morning, as I sat down to write what the Lord is teaching me from today’s passage of Scripture, before I even knew what the Scripture was for today, he had the lyrics to the song “Oceans” going through my mind. And this song is about going deeper with God, going further than we have ever gone before in our walks of faith in the Lord and in our absolute trust in the plan that he has for our lives. And this is not surface level stuff. This is about stepping out into the unknown, believing that God will direct our paths.

And at first I did not make the connection between the words to the song and this particular passage of Scripture. But the more I looked at both, the more I could see the parallels between the two. Do you see them? 

For this passage of Scripture from Matthew 6 is not just about money and possessions, though certainly that is part of it. We should not make money and worldly possessions our treasures and then slight God and his will and purpose and callings upon our lives. For we are not here on this earth for ourselves and for our own pleasures. God put us here so that we will serve him with our lives and not the flesh. He put us here to surrender our all to him and to go wherever he sends us and to do what he says we’re to do.

I saw a meme on Facebook yesterday, I think it was, that said something about how we can’t keep up with God so we don’t have to follow him, but he follows us, instead, wherever we go. But that is all backwards. Is he with us all the time if we are truly with him? Yes! But faith in Jesus Christ, which is biblical God-persuaded faith, surrenders our lives to the Lord to do his will. We put our all on the altar and we now die with him to sin that we might now live for him in walks of obedience to his will and purpose for our lives.

We are not here on this earth for our own pleasures to do whatever it is we want to do. God put us here to serve him with our lives, to do what he had planned and purposed for our lives even before he laid the foundations of the earth, and even before he formed us in the wombs of our mothers. And he doesn’t save us from our sins just so when we die we get to go to heaven and not hell. He saves us to now make us into who he created us to be to now serve him with our lives, and so we obey his will and purpose.

So, when this passage of Scripture tells us that we should not lay up for ourselves treasures on the earth, but we are to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, what does that look like in all practicality? 

I am going to share a personal example here, but this particular calling will not be for everyone, though parts of it is for all of us. But the whole of it gives us an example of what this looks like when we step out into the unknown and we trust the Lord to take us deeper than we have ever gone before, where our trust and reliance has to be totally on the Lord and on the teachings of the Scriptures and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For none of this can be of human flesh, but only as God leads and directs.

Nearly 21 years ago now the Lord began leading me a different direction than I had ever gone before with him. And this was a call for me to write down what the Lord was teaching me from his word each day and to post these writings on the internet. And he began this with my grandmother’s journals, which I had never seen or read before, and a passage of Scripture for which she did not name its address, but which she kept repeating:

“Then the Lord replied: ’Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.’” (Habakkuk 2:2-3 NIV’84)

And from that point on that Scripture passage kept reappearing in my life, and then was solidified even more at a prayer conference for the church denomination I had grown up under (the C&MA) where the Lord spoke to me something from just about everyone’s speeches, sermons, and talks. And the primary thing that kept jumping out at me was that I was to give my ministry over to the Lord for he might have something else for me to do: https://runwithit.blog/2024/08/24/when-our-plans-get-cancelled/ 

And that same year, 2004, the Lord put me on a journey I had never been on before, and he took me out into the deep, into the unknown, and he began teaching me all sorts of things that I did not know about and that I did not understand before, and he had me reading the Bible from start to finish, and then over again. And he also corrected many things I had wrong, too. But he had me writing about all that he was teaching me, and that is when I began this ministry of writing on the internet.

But he didn’t stop there. Seven years later he gave me the gift of writing simple songs of faith based off the Scriptures, and seven years after that he began having me write poems (not put to music), and two years later he started me sharing what he was teaching me in the form of video talks, and a few years after that he had me begin composing Christian memes – all the while he has had me continue writing out my daily devotional times with him. And what began with maybe one post a day has greatly increased.

And believe me when I tell you that each and every new thing he gave me to do was another step deeper out into the unknown where I had never been before. Had I written some poems early on in my life? Sure. But not like the ones that he gives me to write. And I had never written such songs before, nor had I ever done video talks or created memes. And I had never written out my daily devotions to this extent before with the intention for others to read what he had me write. So each new step was a step of faith.

But it wasn’t just that. Most of this was done without the support of other Christians but with much rejection and persecution along the way. For what the Lord has me doing each day is not really considered “normal” in today’s Christian world. And he has me sharing truths from his word each day which are largely being snuffed out by many Christian communities who are trying to attract the world to their gatherings. So I am the oddball who sticks out like a sore thumb. But the Lord has given me a few encouragers.

So, when we think about going deeper with God, out into the unknown, into the deepest waters, where the treasures we are laying up are not on this earth, but in heaven, there is a cost. If you bravely share what the Scriptures teach in the way in which they are written, in context, and you are not sharing a diluted and altered gospel made to appeal to human flesh, you will be rejected even by others who call themselves Christians, and you are not going to have many supporters or encouragers. But that’s okay.

The important thing is that the truth of the gospel is getting out to the people who need to hear it so that they can believe in the truth and so be saved and have eternal life with God. For that is the goal and the purpose.

Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Titus 2:11-14; Acts 26:18

Oceans  

Songwriters: Joel Houston / Matt Crocker / Salomon Lighthelm

You call me out upon the waters

The great unknown where feet may fail

And there I find You in the mystery

In oceans deep my faith will stand

Your grace abounds in deepest waters

Your sovereign hand will be my guide

Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me

You've never failed and You won't start now

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

And I will call upon Your Name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise

My soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw 

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