You are reading Joni and Friends 12th October 2022 Devotional, Wednesday Daily Devotional Message. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Read Joni and Friends 12th October 2022 Devotional below;
TOPIC: Buying the Field
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Matthew 13:44 (ESV)
Joni and Friends 12th October 2022 Devotional MESSAGE
This week I’m celebrating! My 73rd birthday is the 15th of this month and I’m rejoicing in what God has done through my life all these many years. I am thanking him for the spiritual riches he’s given me in this wheelchair, and how my paralysis has led me to the hidden treasure Jesus spoke about in Matthew 13.
Normally, when we hear the parable of the hidden treasure, we assume the field is attractive, something we would love to purchase anyway, a sun-drenched meadow dappled with wildflowers or a garden plot ready for tilling. Surely, that is the kind of field God wants us to buy.
But life is not like that. The field in this parable represents what God wants us to embrace for the sake of the Kingdom. Instead of beautiful acreage, that field may more closely resemble a sandlot with broken bottles and old tires scattered around. It looks unattractive and bleak, and absolutely nothing about it even hints of wealth.
Until, of course, you discover the scrubby sandlot contains a treasure. With this new insight, that ugly scrap of field suddenly brims with possibilities. Once you know a treasure is hidden there, you’re ready to sell everything to buy it.
The field God invited me to buy was my life in a wheelchair. For me, “selling everything” meant giving up self-pity and resentment over a body that didn’t work. “Buying the field” meant no more comparing my lot in life with others. As I chose to use my time to dig into God’s Word and grow in prayer, those practices became the pick and shovel needed to unearth the hidden treasure. And what a treasure I found!
On the surface, my field still looks bleak: paralyzed legs and hands that don’t work. What value could this field hold? But to me, my lot is priceless because I know underneath the surface of my field is unfathomable wealth. I have the joy and priceless treasure of knowing Jesus better. Experiencing more of his grace. Gaining a heart for heaven. And possessing a compassion for the lost. With each year God gives me on this side of heaven, I am unearthing more and living better. I’m digging down deeper into my “field that nobody else wants” and encountering more of Jesus and his Kingdom.
Pray With Me
Lord, thank you for giving us hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places like it says in Isaiah 45:3. I want to be like the man in the parable who happily sold everything in order to obtain the lot where the hidden treasure lay. Grant me the faith to see that my lot in life is the perfect place where God has hidden his treasure for me.
Thank you for reading Joni and Friends 12th October 2022 Devotional Message