Seek FIRST The Kingdom Of God And His Righeousness

Greetings!

Oswald Chambers has an excellent explanation of Matthew 6:33 :

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

It and his other 364 entries can be found at http://utmost.org/having-god%E2%80%99s-unreasonable-faith/. Editing and emphasis will be mine throughout….here goes:

“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 undreasonable 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.

In essence, Jesus was saying, “Don’t make food and drink the CONTROLLING  factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God.

Jesus is saying that THE GREATEST CONCERN OF LIFE IS TO PLACE OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD FIRST, AND EVERYTHING ELSE SECOND.”

All the best, in Him.

Fred

A Christian On Cruise Control Is Lukewarm

Hey, there!

Being on cruise control as a Christian means being idle with no continuous acceleration relative to our attempts to GROW in our faith and subsequently become more like Christ Jesus. We can be very, very active in ‘church activities’  and human charitable endeavors and yet be totally neglecting our DUTY to draw nearer to God and Jesus. In other words, we are quite ‘religious’ but not Spiritual.

Being ‘religious’ not only enables us to remain comfortably and effortlessly human but relieves us of the burden and agony of  denying ourselves of those human traits and habits that keep us from becoming more like our Savior, as well as from ENJOYING  the glorious and wonderful “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22).

Even worse, being on cruise control is synonymous with being ‘lukewarm’ and we know what Revelation 3:15-16 says about how our Father and Christ view the ‘lukewarm’ Christian and what will happen.

We are continually admonished to ACTION and ACCELERATION:

– “hunger and thirst” for righteousness (Matthew 5:6)

– “seek” first the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:23)

– “pursue” righteousness and faith (1 Timothy 6:11)

– “draw” near to God (James 4:8)

– make all “grow” into Him (Ephesians 4:15)

– “fight” the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12)

– “be fervent” in spirit (Romans 12:11)

– “slaving” for the Lord (Romans 12:12)

– “be zealous” for the greater graces (1 Corinthians 12:31)

And the list goes on to show that we should NEVER become idle (on cruise control) and ‘lukewarm’ as Christians. ‘Practicing the presence of God’ (please refer to the Category/Post by that same title) is one of our ABSOLUTE BEST ways to avoid this.

Oswald Chambers writes in his “My Utmost For His Highest” ( http://utmost.org/the-patience-to-wait-for-the-vision/ ) :

“It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually. We are apt to look for satisfaction within ourselves and say, “Now I’ve got it! Now I am completely sanctified. Now I can endure.” Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. Beware of the danger of spiritual relaxation.”

And again, he writes in his article at http://utmost.org/are-you-obsessed-by-something/ : “The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God.”

End of excerpts

Of course, there is one obvious exception to this analogy. If we set our control to cruise on the MAXIMUM of “loving the Lord your God with your WHOLE heart, and your WHOLE soul, and with your WHOLE comprehension” (Matthew 22:37)….then we are good to go!!

Until later,

Fred