What Do You Savor?

Jul 13

Good Morning,

Matthew 16:23 “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."

Jesus explained that He was going to need to be crucified and die. Peter simply wanted Jesus to live. Was that so bad? Jesus’s reply was, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

God wants us to savor, to relish, and to have a passionate taste for the things of God. You might put a bite of good steak in your mouth and say, "Mmmm." That is savoring something. While we were out of town, my son brought me an apple fritter. Of course I wanted it, but I did not want all of it; they are just too big. I broke it in half, and the inside was filled with chunks of apples covered with lots of sugar; I savored that apple fritter.

Most prayer requests are about our bodies: health, safety, and food. We savor the things of this world.

Prayer for souls to be saved and for God to call young people into the ministry will reveal the eternal things that we savor.

We savor earthly things, but not necessarily sinful things. Peter did not want Jesus to go into town or to get killed. There is nothing wrong with that except it was seeking the will of man not the will of God.

After Stephen preached his first sermon, God allow him to be killed. That is not the prayer we would have prayed.

God had the apostle Paul spend years in jail. Again, this is not something for which we would have prayed.

God allowed Abraham and Sara, Zacharias and his wife, and others the burden of not being able to bear children. We need to develop a palette that savors the spiritual and the eternal. Yes, we need a new building (that goes without saying), but have we prayed that every one of our members would trust Christ?

What do we savor?

Colossians 3:1 says that our affection should be set on “things above, not on things on the earth.”

In the garden, Jesus said, "not my will but thine be done.” (Luke 22:42)

Jesus refused to change the stone into bread because it was Satan’s suggestion.

Let's pray for our children to get saved and to surrender their lives to God, and yes, of course to pray they will also be well.

If we are sick, as all people are at times (some people even die), there's nothing wrong with praying that God will heal and restore our health; but let us pray more that we will glorify God while we are ill.