For thought and meditation

[rl69]

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. MATTHEW 6:33
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, 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.” Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with God first, and everything else second.
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.

[buckwheatpaul]

Great study and points....thanks Ronnie....Paul

[USMC87]

A great lesson and start of the day, Amen.

[Blackwater]

This verse also makes me think about how foolish we and our human wills and desires are. Many times, especially when young, we set our hearts on something that we know isn't truly "good" for us, and yet, our hearts yearn for it anyway. And when we get it, if that's the eventual outcome, it winds up not being nearly as "great" as we thought it'd be. But when we go with the Lord's will, He always leads us to pleasant surprises, oftentimes putting in our grasp things we weren't smart or mature enough to want, but that please us MUCH more than the things we foolishly desire. Truly, the Lord wants us to have the very best for us. If we could only see that when we're yearning for those "other" things! Maybe that's why He allows us to live as long as He does? So we can mature and get enough experience to learn? We surely aren't born "smart!" May His Holy name be praised forever!

[pcolapaddler]

only when we are young?

How often do we find ourselves learning the same lessons over again?

Lather, rinse repeat...

Sent from an unnamed device running an undisclosed OS via a third party application.

[Blackwater]

This is perhaps the hardest part of salvation for us dumb humans to get through our thick skulls? We are so oriented towards what we can see, what we feel and can control, that it's awfully hard for most of us to really have full faith in this verse. But it's real. I can't help but think that for most of us, this is something we have to learn through time and experience to really "get it" fully. But it IS real! Were it not, Christ would not have said it. Period. Those who can't or won't or don't want to understand this verse, obviously won't. But that does NOT mean it's not fully, completely, 100% true. There are many things we all don't fully understand that we know to be true. Why some deny this verse, because of their own limited understanding of it, is beyond me. Like many things we don't fully understand at the beginning of our "walk of Faith," this is one we need to keep in the back of our minds so that one day, when we DO have the experience, we CAN understand it then. That's my take on it, anyway. Coming to faith doesn't mean we understand every aspect of the total Truth of it. I think this is why we were admonished to "study to show thyself approved?"