Developing Horizons Magazine (2).pdf Winter 2016 | Page 23

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. What we want most: Ask your heart, “What would you rather have than anything else in the world?” Reject the conventional answer. Insist on the true one and when you have heard it, you will know the kind of person you are. What we think about most: The true test is what we think about voluntarily. It is more than likely that our thoughts will cluster about our secret heart treasure and whatever that is will reveal what we are. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). How we use our money. Ater taking care of obligations: Whatever money is left to do with as we please will tell us a great deal indeed. Better listen to it. What we do with our leisure time: Whether TV, radio or something more constructive, what I do with mine reveals the kind of person I am. The company we enjoy: Where we go when we are free to go where we will is a near infallible index of character. We can learn the true state of our minds by examining our unexpressed admirations. Israel often admired, even envied, the pagan nations around them, and so forgot the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the law and the promises and the fathers. Instead of blaming Israel, let us look to ourselves. What we laugh at: Some things lie outside the field of pure humor. No reverent Christian, for instance, finds death funny, nor birth, nor love. No Spirit-filled man can bring himself to laugh at the Holy Scriptures, or the Church, which Christ purchased with His own blood, or prayer or righteousness or human grief or pain. Surely no one who has been even for a brief moment in the presence of God could ever laugh at a story involving the Deity. Tozer says, “These are a few tests. The wise Christian will find others.” As you set your hearts to seek God’s presence more this year than any other, expect Him to draw near to you. He has promised that he will draw near to those who draw near to Him (James 4:8). What a wonderful place to be -- near to the heart of God! 23