Seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. —Matthew
6:33
{CHAMBERS} “When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find
them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “…seek first
the kingdom of God….” 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 […] 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.
{ELGIN} A young man said to
Jesus “Let me first go bury my father.”
Jesus replied “Let the dead bury the dead” (Luke 9:60) Jesus said “Unless
you hate your father and mother … you cannot be My disciple.” (Luke
14:26) Jesus said to the rich young
man “Sell all you have and give it to the poor” (Mark 10:21) The men had a natural view of things … They were not
evil .. they had good intensions, but .. Jesus point was to them and to us … there
is something greater required of you … put God first in everything. We don’t have a problem with the idea of
putting God first, but struggle with doing that when it conflicts with our
natural affections. There are a number
of commands that we can quote much more easily than we can put into
practice. Jesus could see the devotion
of the heart in each of these men. Obedience
begins in the heart. Are you willing to
lay your life down .. all of your life … for God? If not then what is it that demands your affection that
sets itself up as the true god in your life?
Money. Family. Occupation. Lifestyle.
Traditions of your fathers or your culture? (Mark
7:7-9) “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship
me in vain; their teachings are merely
human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to
human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the
commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.”
The path that we follow as Christians has a
slippery slope. It is easy to deceive
ourselves and think that we are fulfilling God’s purpose when, in fact, we are
following our own – watered-down religion.
One that puts our well being and what we consider to be right … ahead of
God and what He has made clear in His word and through His Son. So when God says “Love me first with your all”,
that is exactly what He means. When He
says “Pick up your cross”, “Offer yourself as a living sacrifice”, that is
exactly what He means. But to live like
that requires faith. If you are not nurturing
that faith then you will not be able to live the life that He has called you
to. Instead it will be a life that is a
mere shadow of a new life in Christ. It
will have a good appearance but will lack the spiritual power that God has intended. So to take you back to an old friend (Proverbs 3:5-8) “Trust in the Lord with
all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will
direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring
health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” Pray on that …
No comments:
Post a Comment