Saturday, May 21, 2016

Craving Less For More Of What You Have And Craving More For More Of Who Has You

My Utmost For His Highest
 
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. —Matthew 6:33
 
“Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, “But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed.” The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life. “…do not worry about your life…” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed— no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. […] It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.” CHAMBERS
 
What is worse than that is when we conclude that God will reward us with “all these things” if we will devote ourselves to Him.  Not realizing that (Matthew 6:24) “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”  That we are really devoted to “all these things” and merely want to use God to get them.  Sound harsh?  The truth often does.  The truth always confronts the lie.
 
The point is, put your full trust in God and not in the things of this world. (1 John 2:15-16) “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”  We spend a disproportionate amount of time “scrambling” after “stuff” which in the end is nothing more than “fluff”.  We use the “all these things” to find comfort and confidence.  When, as His children, our comfort and confidence are to be in the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit and the Word.  The problem we have is that even if we acknowledge the truth, we don’t have the will to get there.  That my friend is where faith comes in.  And just like the man said to  Jesus (Mark 9:22-24) “…. if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!””  Let that be your cry to the Lord.  Lord I believe but I want to believe more.  I want to trust in You and not in myself.  I want to stop craving comfort in what I have and crave to be closer to the One who has me.  As with all things to do with our new life, it starts in the heart.  CHARLEY

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