Life makes many demands. Mammon sees
to it that we worry, and he enjoys it when we do. Worry is equal to fear, and
fear destroys faith—the only thing that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is
what moves God into action, and fear is what moves Satan, and therefore Mammon,
into action. Fear and worry are faith in Satan.
We as Christians are a special people
(1 Peter 2:9). We do not depend on worldly resources like the world. Our
resources come from our home country, heaven.
Our sole purpose is to seek first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
The Lord is concerned about our priorities.
The busier our lives become, the more important prioritising becomes. The
things we enjoy get higher priority while we postpone the activities we don’t
like. Many Christians dislike the responsibilities of evangelism, so they
postpone them. The attitude is not necessarily rebellion but rather passivity
because of fear. The closer we walk with the Lord, the more faith and less fear
we have. The Lord, who is the boss and sets our priorities, set some
conditional priorities for us. We are first to attend to His business.
What does it mean to seek the Kingdom
of God? We are part of God’s Kingdom and not of this world. We are pilgrims
with a mission. “You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world,”
(John 15:19b). If a secret agent forgets his purpose for being in a foreign
country and becomes one with his enemy, what purpose does he serve? Surely he
would be dealt with should his superiors find out. “No one
serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer” (2 Timothy 2:4).
Our main purpose is to obey God with
the sole focus on building, expanding, and maintaining God’s Kingdom on earth.
It involves evangelism and discipleship. That’s all we must be concerned about.
We are not to worry about rations, clothes, and tents; that is the job of the
Commanding Officer. We are also not to team up with the “civilians” (things of
this world), because they absorb the time and focus we need for the task.
Front-line soldiers stay busy with
their responsibilities and are mostly restricted to the base and the field. They get
little time to have fun with civilians. This is because contact with civilians
leads to distraction, and the soldiers would become soft and less focused.
Seeking God’s righteousness is of
equal priority. Righteousness means “right standing.” Jesus is our
righteousness. “It is because of him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus,
who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and
redemption,” (1
Corinthians 1:30).
Therefore, we must first seek Jesus,
and then constantly seek right standing with God. “Surely, the arm
of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your
iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from
you, so that he will not hear,” (Isaiah 59:1, 2).
This is from the Old Testament, and
our sins are dealt with, but the principle still applies. God said, “Make every
effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness
no one will see the Lord,” (Hebrews 12:14). He also said, “God disciplines us for our good,
that we may share His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but
painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace
for those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen your feeble arms
and weak knees,”
(Hebrews 12:10b-12).
To be effective servants of the Lord,
we must train ourselves for battle. He expects us to forget about useless,
temporary worldly pleasures and instead obey His every command in order to
remain in right standing with Him. Then we need to go all the way in the
building of His Kingdom. If we do not, how will we answer when we are called to
give account at judgment day?
There is a fine line between building
a church congregation and building the Kingdom of God. We need to watch our
motivation. Who do we have in mind when we work in Christian activities? Are we
concerned about God, or are we focused on the pastor, church building, and
activities? Do we focus too much on numbers? Are we concerned about what God is
doing internationally, or do we give all our attention to issues within the
congregation?
The true church is the global church.
We should not form congregational borders. We should be so aware of and tuned
in to the Lord that we do whatever He tells us to do. We will then find that He
is interested in more than just the local church.
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