“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” -Matthew 6:33
Yesterday, we explored the topic of persistent prayer, and how this world needs more persistent prayer warriors. This thing called prayer can be the most effective tool that we have in our spiritual arsenal. Disciplined prayer warriors can change the world, and I believe we at a place in history that requires more prayer for our world than ever before!
As we ponder this idea of prayer, we inevitably search our thoughts and our hearts for the 
most important things to pray for. Our families are brought to mind. Our personal concerns and our stressors are also brought to the forefront. When we pray these things are important and good to pray for. We also should remember that we are Kingdom people, and as Kingdom people, our priority to Christ and His Kingdom should also be high on that list. When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray the spirit of humility and servanthood were spoke: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…”
How can we make God’s Kingdom a priority today?
How can we emphasize God’s will not our will be done today?
Is there a rebellious spirit within us that struggles with these components of submission to God today? It is not easy to humble ourselves in this way. We might fight against submitting our will to God’s will, but knowing He cares and loves us and desire to light our path ought to bring comfort and peace even if we struggle with trusting Him.
Seeking God’s kingdom and His righteousness is never easy, but does bring us peace when we shift the focus from “me first” to God first. There is a lightening of the burden when we allow God to carry it for us. We don’t have to go it alone. We have One who stands ready to help and to love us. He comes to our level and desires fellowship and provides assurance and hope. Thus, when we pray today…seek His kingdom before we seek ours. As we talked about yesterday, be persistent in these conversations…and start off with accepting His kingdom first and seek after it with your life, heart, soul, mind.
Prayer: Lord I long to live for your kingdom alone. Help me in this discipline of pray and submission to you. You know that this is not easy for me. I struggle with taking control and selfishness. I want to seek after you and your righteousness today. I will not worry about tomorrow, but I will seek your kingdom in my life today. Grant me your strength for what ever comes my way today. Walk with me and help me when I become distracted and frustrated. I pray for those that I will come into contact with today, allow me to show compassion, grace and love to all those I meet. Lord, your will be done in my life today. -Amen.
Okay, I confess, I made the above disorder up, but it does accurately describe our prayers sometimes doesn’t it? We pray like a kitten plays with yarn…its great until something more interesting comes along. We have so many distractions in our world today. The sounds outside. Our cell phones. Checking our social media feed on various platforms. We live in a very distracting world. How can we even focus on concentrated prayers when we have all of this distraction around us? We need quiet. We must find spaces of solitude so that we can converse with God. It doesn’t have to be long winded prayers full of “Thees” and “Thous”. We don’t have to have all of the right things to say either. Just take five minutes of concentrated time (with no distractions) today and pray. Start off by praying for your needs (not wants). Give God thanks for answered prayers. Then focus on your immediate family…you friends…your coworkers…your boss…your neighbor…and so on. If it helps put a timer on so that you know when to stop praying. But commit to just five minutes of prayer each day this week. At first it may seem very hard to focus in on five minutes. For some of us, it might seem like an eternity. But pray and inquire of God what you should pray for too…His Holy Presence with inform and guide you in your conversations. It will take practice, so do not become frustrated when you don’t accomplish this discipline at first. Keep trying. We need more persistent prayer warriors now more than ever in our churches and in our world. He is calling you and me to be such people of prayer!
troubling is that holiness is not being lived out or made into something real and tangible for the world to see. The notion of being set-apart is both vital and necessary for the purpose of entire sanctification. Being set-apart means that we wash the feet of those who have only experienced religion with strings attached. For we are not a religion, we are a movement that preaches about this holy relationship we can have with the Almighty! We are a movement (or at least we used to be) that lived out holiness and preached it from our pulpits. If this is missing in our corps and in our witness then perhaps we have lost a step and are no longer a moving, passionate movement…but instead could it be that we are static and floundering about trying to define our identity apart from Holiness?
General Frederick Coutts once said: “To pray together is to be shielded from evil, not only from the perils which beset the body, but also the dangers that assail the soul”
I believe that if that we are to experience a revival again as a movement, it will only come when we begin to take our prayer lives more seriously. This spiritual discipline is vital to both the corporate worship setting as well as the personal one done in those private moments. Let me ask you this, how often to you pray for your fellow soldiers and officers? How often do we lift up our concerns before the Almighty and continue to wait on Him? In our fast paced lifestyles we have grown impatient and we lack attention to prayer. We need more prayer warriors in our Army and less prayer worriers. We need authentic, vulnerable moments in our pews as much as we need real, genuine times of solitude in our homes devoted to prayer.
Somewhere along the line did we get ahead of Christ?
This intimate moment with Jesus, Nicodemus comes face to face with the Messiah – God’s chosen one who has come to deliver not just the Jews but the whole world. Nicodemus sought out Jesus for himself. He was curious, and he asked wanted to know more. This conversation was done one on one, a conversation that begged for answers, and Jesus gave them to Nicodemus. It doesn’t say in the scriptures if Nicodemus became a follower of Christ, but he was present after the crucifixion, and many have speculated that He did indeed become a member of the early Christian church…but it all started here at night with a conversation with a very personal Jesus.
Some of us only know Jesus when we are in large groups while at church. Some find worship to be the only encounter they have with Jesus in their week. But Jesus comes to each of us and longs for us to have that one on one time with Him. He wants to hear from us, and even longs for us to ask the hard questions of life. He comes to us willing to pour out His love upon us and to partake in this life with us. This is a very personal relationship. The corporate setting at church is wonderful, and we mustn’t discount that by any means, but we ought to crave those intimate moments with Jesus too. This is where we can begin to thrive as followers of Christ. This is where the conversation starts – in our silence and our prayers to Him. This is where life becomes transformed and renewed. Something mysterious and wondrous that words cannot even explain takes place when we specifically and intentionally set aside time to commune with Jesus. Oh that each of us encounter Jesus this way today! Find that time, set it aside…and seek your own personal Jesus.
Today is what they call “Ground Hog’s Day”. It’s a rather silly tradition here in the United States that commemorates a rodent and makes this ground hog a meteorologist for the day. It is said that if this rodent sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. It’s a big thing in Punxsutawney PA, as they celebrate and put cameras on this animal that looks somewhat shocked at the attention it is getting. But the real hope in this celebration is that we as people will finally see light at the end of this tunnel that is the season of winter. Many people struggle with winter blues and most just hate the cold weather typically found in the winter months, and so they place their hopes on this silly event known as Ground Hog’s day. All for a little bit of light and a whole lot more warmth.
In reality we all want more light. Winters are okay, even great for many winter recreational sports people, but these months often serve to remind us of dormancy and the hope of new life in the spring. In a very real sense, Christ came so that we could come out of the darkness of sin and death and into the light and warmth of new life! Once we have accepted this new life and light, our calling then is to become that very light for others, who are still in the dark, to see. Our light can shine, but we have to be willing to carry this flame of hope to those around us. The words we choose to say, the actions we choose to do – it all matters! How we conduct ourselves matters! We do not need Christians who only utter truths of the gospel, we need Christians who will live them and practice them. We are called to BE holy, and then do that holiness. It begins by embracing the light, coming out of the shadows and becoming a vessel of peace, love, grace and compassion. Our world needs less hate and judgment and more peace, compassion and love! Can we shine so that the world around us no longer lives in the shadows? Perhaps like Punxsutawney Phil (as silly as it is) we can shine so that others might not see their shadows anymore. The shadows of sin and hurt have held many for ransom for far too long! May we shine and do these good things so that others might find this hope that we all embrace.
While I was tending to this little cut that had become something more, it got me thinking that this is just like hurt and grudges. At the beginning when the wound is inflicted, it doesn’t seem like much. Sure, you feel hurt or wounded by words that were said to you, or things someone has done to you, but you “toughen up” and fight back. At least that’s how I work. I hit back. I respond, sometimes even lashing out. -It’s just a little cut.- But, maybe a few days later, or months later, you discover that this little cut has become a bigger issue that you originally thought. It has festered and become swollen, so much so that it has infected your heart and how you think about THAT person or group. Finally, you have a decision to make…will you allow this wound to continue to fester and eventually poison your whole body (spirit and soul too)? Or will you drain the wound and put ointment on it so that you can heal and move on…and not just live, but thrive?
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have to drain the wounds in our lives in order for us to become fully like Christ in every way, shape and form. We can declare that we want to be holy, and that we want to be the very image of Christ in our world, but it is only lip service if we haven’t dealt with these infected wounds in our lives. For some of us, these wounds run more deeply than we realize…and we need the Holy Spirit to help us sterilize and heal them. It may take us time to heal, but we must make this a priority in order for us to grow into this grace and knowledge of Christ.
hold you more accountable. I have witnessed people driving by me honking their horns, cutting people off and even giving someone the finger, only to notice that they had an ichthus fish (a Christians symbol) on the back of their car. What kind of witness is that? Will that attract people to Jesus? I don’t think so, in fact I think it will only drive people further from Christ.
This isn’t an easy road. There will be sacrifices along the way, but know that when you commit to him, be faithful to that…don’t have an exit strategy in case it doesn’t work out. It’s either all in or nothing at all. There can be no middle ground, and half-hearted attempts at an obedience relationship to Christ. Are you prepared for such a radical relationship? Are you prepared to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow him?
pressure…but he didn’t. Daniel stood firm. In fact if you read the story of Daniel and lion’s den you will know that as soon as he hears about this new law he goes up to his room, opens the window that face Jerusalem and he prayed to God.
Pastor's Ponderings 