Build For The Children Coming

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

I have a challenge and a question for both myself and any professing believers who might read this word. Just a few thoughts from my heart. I wonder how many of us have seriously asked ourselves what the treasure of our heart is? I’ve been doing some soul searches myself, because I kept coming up short of the promises of God I read about in his word. And I’m sure that’s not the fault of the Father, but something in me that could profit from some deeper searches.

 In the words of Jesus Christ, God looks into our hearts to see who we are. His love is perfect over us and his desire is always to invite us into deeper and higher heart places. He desires to change who we are so that we might become as He ordained us to be. His desire is that we might seek Him in such a way that we can learn how to leave an inheritance in heaven for our children.

Gen 22:17

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore…

God’s promise is for the children of the faith of Abraham. See Galatians. We come humbly as members of his family. Our life is his treasure because we’ve made him our treasure. We’re well guarded. No thief can come in and rob our houses and spoil our families.

My friend, I sure don’t know about you but to me that promise is a true treasure to apprehend and to hold fast to. As professing believers, our response to this offer of protecting our houses is the key to walking in it.  Who would dare to prefer the things the world offers us if we truly desire the  salvation of the promise? I want to stay pure from worldly influences, but I know that I need Jesus to help me with that. Because we know that he died to save the world.  And to prepare us and then send us back into the world.

Romans 12:2

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Now, after we consider and accept the truth that God’s way is the only right way, how can we learn better ways of  walking in the will of God? In the word we’re taught that he has a good, acceptable and perfect will. I think that truth is one we need to get a better understanding of. I surely do need that myself. Jacob’s life is so full of truth about the way to God’s heart. But the road he traveled was filled with sufferings. As I think over his life I wonder if he didn’t go from living in the good will of God and gradually traveled through into the perfect will of God? I want to learn more.

Genesis 28:20-22

And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

To me it appears that Jacob started his walk with God with an “If you will, I will” commitment to God rather than a quick and total surrender.  I thought it strange, but Jacob proved God! And then, over a period of years, God proved himself as faithful to him.

Jacob’s vow was to give God a portion of all he blessed him with. By this story we can see that blessings are inherited by vows made and kept. Jacob was rewarded for faithfully keeping his vow.

Gen 33:13

I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointed the pillar, and where thou vowed a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

During his time of serving Laban, Jacob suffered through some great trials. He served Laban seven years for Rachel, the daughter he loved, but when the time came to receive his wife, he was dissapointed. Laban gave him Leah, his other daughter. Then he had to serve seven more years to win the one he loved. But afer praying into this awhile I saw that out of this mistake. Leah, came eleven of the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. That revelation has stayed with me for years and I still am amazed about it.  Jacob’s life has become to me an example of long suffering trust and obedience.

1 Peter 4:12 -14

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

Isn’t it a grand thing to wonder at the way God accomplished great and glorious things for his people Israel through the sufferings of Jacob?  That reminds me of the apostle Paul. He told his people that all his sufferings were for their good.

Jacob was later re-named Israel by God, and his family line was the beginning of the twelve tribes of Israelites which God later brought out of Egypt by the prophet Moses. Jacob inherited the blessing from his father Abraham, then passed it down to his sons.

Romans 8:18

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

If we become people of faith we are joint heirs with Christ, heirs to the blessings of Abraham and his bloodline. Jesus came from the bloodline of Abraham. In the covenant of Jesus we can rest in the sweet knowledge that our sufferings are not in vain. We’ve inherited the royal blood of Christ and we live under his authority and Lordship. Our rewards are for this life and the life to come.  After we are gone our descendants will reap blessings we have labored for in this life.

Galatians 3:9 ,14

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Through our lifetimes of faithfulness we can lay up sweet, powerful and eternal treasures. We can apprehend and guarantee an inheritance for our right now loved ones and for future generations we may never see, just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did.

Matthew 6:20

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

May we all learn and grow in God’s gift of grace and righteousness, for our eternal good and for His glory..