Pentecost 2026 - Week 1 - Day 1

Tuesday !  

We are going somewhere new this week in the blog - it is a short week after all. It will look a bit different as I'm not quite sure where it will end.  But - there will be a Sermon from all this on Sunday!  

In regards to that disfunctional bible reading plan - I was having trouble synching the scripture I picked with the app bible plan.  So I reset it to the bible reading plan to a canned plan to read the entire Bilble over two years.  

It's worth reading for daily devotion - but may or may not follow what I am doing in the blog.

Let me start new here - I think that most of us genuinely want to grow.

We want to follow Christ more faithfully. We want freedom from the habits that seem to circle back around. We want patience where we are sharp, courage where we are fearful, consistency where we are weak. Very few believers wake up in the morning hoping to drift spiritually.

And yet, when we decide it is time to change, our instinct is almost always the same: try harder. That is what I hear - I'm trying to believe pastor, I keep praying, I keep working on my faith...

Sigh!

We apply more effort. We add more structure. We promise God that this time we will be stronger. For a while, it can even feel like progress. But eventually many of us discover something frustrating and humbling—the heart does not release what it loves simply because it has been corrected.

You can know something is unhealthy. You can confess it. You can preach against it. But if it still holds your affection, willpower alone will not uproot it.

This Sunday we are going to begin expanding on a theme that reshapes how we understand spiritual growth.

Jesus tells in a brief parable about a man who discovers treasure hidden in a field. What makes the story remarkable is not what the man gives up, but the joy with which he gives it up. He sells everything he owns—not reluctantly, not under pressure—but because he has found something better. (I will let you dig to find that story... it might be Sundays parable)

That small parable opens up a much larger truth. Real transformation does not begin with gritted teeth. It begins with awakened desire. The Christian life is not sustained by suppressing love for lesser things; it is sustained by discovering a greater love that gradually displaces them.

Over the next few weeks, I want to  keep expanding this theme together - looking at how the Holy Spirit forms new affections within us, why joy is stronger than guilt in the long run, and what it means to become genuinely new rather than slightly improved. My prayer is that we will begin to see spiritual growth not as exhausting self-management, but as learning to treasure Christ more deeply.

Here is what I am thinking -

If you have ever felt stuck…
If you have grown weary of trying harder…
If you have wondered why change feels so uneven…
Let’s begin this week by asking God to do what we cannot do for ourselves.
 
Prayer
Father, You know the places in our hearts that still cling to lesser things. You know the habits we have tried to overcome and the discouragement we sometimes carry in silence. We confess that we often attempt to change ourselves through effort alone.
Would You show us something better?
Would You awaken in us a deeper love for Christ?
Would You, by Your Spirit, form new desires that crowd out the old ones?
Teach us to treasure what is eternal.
Free us from the small things that hold us captive.
And let our obedience grow not from fear, but from joy.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, our true and lasting Treasure.
Amen.