Step 1: We admitted that we were powerless over our dependencies-that our life had become unmanageable.

January 23, 2007 

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

Maybe you aren’t quite ready to tell this to anyone else – but take a moment and tell yourself the truth – who or what do you treasure?

“After twenty years of listening to the yearnings of people’s hearts, I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and our most precious treasure. It gives us meaning. Some of us have repressed this desire, burying it beneath so many other interests that we are completely unaware of it. Or we may experience it in different ways – as a longing for wholeness, completion, or fulfillment. Regardless of how we describe it, it is a longing for love. This yearning is the essence of the human spirit; it is the origin of our highest hopes and most noble dreams. Modern theology describes this desire as God given.

But something gets in the way. Not only are we unable to fulfill the commandments; we often even ignore our desire to do so. The longing at the center of our hearts repeatedly disappears from our awareness, and its energy is usurped by forces that are not at all loving. Our desires are captured, and we give ourselves over to things that, in our deepest honesty, we really do not want.”* (See Matthew 22:37-40)

Have you ignored your desire to love God and others?

Scripture reading for today: Matthew 21 - 22

Thought for today: Denial is a terrible thing. It blinds us to the truth; sometimes “our desires are captured, and we give ourselves over to things that, in our deepest honesty, we really do not want.” I want you to know this very hard truth – there are some things that we say we do because we are motivated by “love” – when the truth is, we are acting in ways that reject love – love for others, love for God, love for self…

Thought for tomorrow: Lord, help us see ourselves as you see us – and give us the grace and mercy we so desperately need.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs 14:12 NIV

All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord. Proverbs 16:2 NIV

January 23, 2007
Teresa McBean

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