Devotions Inspired By Beyond BlessedSample

IT STARTS WITH YOUR HEART
by James Morris

At Gateway we have a car donation ministry where people donate vehicles that we give to members in need. All kinds of cars have been donated. I’ve seen cars you might find in a junk yard, very nice new cars, and everything in between. For years I had the privilege to oversee this ministry, and in doing so I drove many of these vehicles. I would drive a car to the shop when repairs were needed and the car wash to clean it up right before we gave it to a member—whatever was necessary. 

One day I drove a fully loaded 2-year-old BMW 7 series that was donated. It had dark windows and shiny wheels, and I got many comments when I drove it, and those comments made me feel good even though the car wasn’t mine. On another day, I was driving an old, beat up Buick that was putting off some intense fumes. God used that Buick to teach me a valuable lesson. 

I was driving through a nice town and hadn’t eaten lunch that day. I pulled into a Chick-fil-A drive-through forgetting the windows didn’t go down and the driver’s door was smashed shut. I had to climb out of the car through the back door to order! As I stood there ordering I could feel all the looks of the people around me, and these looks didn’t feel so good. I wanted to stand up and announce, “This isn’t really my car! I oversee a ministry to give cars away!” The enemy was working in that moment, but right then God showed me that I needed to deal with a heart issue I had toward money. It didn’t matter what those people thought of me and my financial situation. It matters what God thinks of me. 

Many of us have a heart issue that causes us to desire the approval of others and it affects how we steward different areas of our lives. For some of us, we want our possessions to make others think highly of us or fill some void. For others, maybe it’s not financial at all. It’s all a matter of the heart and where we find our identities. 

To cultivate the heart of a good steward, we need to surrender every area of our lives to God and ask Him to show us where our hearts are out of alignment with His. Remember that everything we have belongs to God. I want my heart to belong completely to Him, and I believe you want the same.

PRAYER
God, thank You so much for Your love and grace. Please reveal to me if there are any areas that I find my identity in my stuff or lack thereof. Help me to see my identity in You. I want You to have my full heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

MEMORY VERSE
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. PSALM 24:1 (NLT)