BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

If you don’t believe it, read about Martha. She let natural things rob her of one of the most priceless spiritual moments any of us can imagine. She let them stop her from literally sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing Him teach the Word of God. Think of it. Jesus Himself was right there in her own living room speaking words of life and she was too busy tending to things in the kitchen to listen to Him. As you may remember from reading the story, however, Martha’s sister Mary made a different choice. She chose to set natural things aside, draw near to Jesus and focus on His Word. That upset Martha so much that she complained to Jesus about it. She went to Him and said, “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:40-42). Look again at what Jesus said there. He essentially said that time spent with Him in the Word shall never be taken away from us. It will provide us with permanent benefits because the things of God are eternal. They last forever. Natural things don’t last forever! They eventually pass away. They might benefit us to some degree for a brief time while we’re on the earth, but at most we’ll only be here for 120 years or so. After that we’ll keep on living throughout eternity—and compared to eternity 120 years isn’t very long. Seek Those Things That Are Above We need to start looking more at the big picture! We need to enlarge the scope of our spiritual radar so we can see things from an overall perspective. Instead of setting our attention on what’s happening right now, or even on what might happen for the next few decades, we need to practice seeing things from God’s eternal point of view. When we look at things from His perspective, we can see what really matters. We can more easily lay aside the unimportant things—things that won’t even matter a year from now—and invest more of our time seeking God. While we’re on this earth we can do things for Him we can’t do after we go to heaven. We can shine for Him as lights in the darkness. We can be His ambassadors, laying hands on the sick, sharing the gospel, and ministering His love to the lost. We’re the Body of Christ on this planet. He’s the Head, but we’re His arms and His legs. We are His light in this world and He needs us to shine now! He needs us to reach the people around us, and to do that we can’t always be caught up in temporal things. We must dedicate our lives to God and “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and…run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2). “Gloria, are you saying it doesn’t matter whether or not we prosper financially or receive healing for our bodies or see God’s goodness manifested in the natural affairs of our lives?” Of course those things matter! God loves us and wants us to receive all the BLESSINGS He’s provided for us, both temporal and eternal. He also wants others to see what He’s done for us so they’ll be interested in finding out more about Him. People in this world aren’t looking for more trouble. They aren’t looking for sickness and lack. They’re looking for a way out of trouble; for healing and abundance and solutions to their problems. They’re looking for witnesses who will say to them, “I’ve got the answer and His Name is Jesus!” God has always desired His people to be elevated in the earth so that those who don’t know Him can see His lovingkindness. He’s always wanted the Church to have such a supernatural reputation that even the unsaved would be saying, “You want to be healed? Go down there to the Believers’ Convention. You want to receive from God? Go to that church down the block. They’ll pray for you and something amazing will happen for sure!” That’s the kind of life that belongs to us as born-again children of Almighty God. He intends for us to walk this earth in the same power and anointing and results that Jesus Himself did. But we’re not going to do that by being carnally minded and preoccupied with the things of this world. We have to be spiritually minded. We have to keep our sights set on what we’re called by God to do and on where we’re headed in the eternal scheme of things. 28 : BVOV

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