Mr Jones goes to heaven:

There’s a little story about a Mr. Jones who died and went to Heaven.   Peter was waiting at the gates to give him a tour.  Amid the splendour of golden streets, beautiful mansions and choirs of angels that Peter showed him, Mr. Jones noticed an odd building.  He thought it looked like an enormous warehouse since it had no windows and only one door.

When he asked to see inside, Peter hesitated before replying, “You really don’t want to see what’s in there!”  Mr. Jones was puzzled.  “But, why should there be any secrets in Heaven?” wondered Mr. Jones, “What incredible surprise is waiting for me inside there?”

When the tour was over he was still wondering about this building, so he asked again to see inside.  Finally Peter relented, and when the Apostle opened the door, Mr. Jones almost knocked him over in his haste to get inside!  The enormous building was filled with row after row of shelves, floor to ceiling, each stacked neatly with many boxes tied with red ribbons.

“All these boxes all have names on them,” whispered Mr. Jones.  Then turning to Peter he asked, “Do I have one?”  Peter took Mr. Jones arm as he replied, “Yes, you do” and tried to guide Mr. Jones back outside.  “Frankly,” said Peter, “If I were you ….”

But, he was too late.  Mr. Jones was already dashing toward the “J” aisle to find his box, while Peter followed shaking his head.  He caught up with Mr. Jones just as he was slipping the red ribbon off his box and popping off the lid.  Looking inside, Mr. Jones let out a deep sigh, like the ones Peter has heard so many times before.

Because, there in Mr Jones’s box, were all the blessings that God wanted to give him while he was on earth…..but Mr Jones never asked.

Some time back I asked Jeev if he had any prayer requests, when we knelt down for family prayer. Very sweetly he replied, yes, pray that I should not be lazy to spend time in prayer. Oh! How I recognize myself with that!!! There have been just way too many times when I was nudged by the Lord to pray but I put it off simply because I was lazy.

For the last couple of weeks, the Lord has been working out this truth in me. I was watching an interview of a pastor who quoted his spiritual mentor: “Discipline, not desire determines destiny”. Trust me, it hit me hard. Way too many times, we have a great desire to do mighty things for the kingdom of God, to be regular in prayer, to walk with the Lord closely. But too often, the desire remains just a desire, and dies away with time.

The Bible says: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” James 4:8

If you take a look at the verse above, we see that the first part is for us to do. And when we discipline ourselves to draw close to God, God will draw close to us. May we never find ourselves in Mr Jones’s place, sighing in eternity that we missed God’s blessings coz we never took the time to talk to Him in Prayer.

Sketch this in your heart if you will: “Discipline, not desire determines destiny” – Jerry Hendricks

 Have a fantabulous month ahead!!!!