Hunger after His Kingdom (5)
But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you …Matt 6:33, NKJV
“It’s all very good what you said about seeking His Kingdom and finding the wealth we desire in it. But can you be more specific and tell us what to do?”
In my last post I talked about our desire for wealth and finding its fulfillment in the Kingdom of God. I won’t be surprised if you were to ask the above question, as many have. We are used to being told what to do and what not to do. We find security in this, believing that when we have done what we are supposed to do we shall receive what we desire. Even when the subject matter is the Kingdom of God, we still think in such terms.
But that is the Old Testament way: to work for God’s favor. The New Testament way is to know that we have God’s favor, then we work from that premise. If we cannot work (that is, all our works are futile that can do us no good) to achieve salvation, can we work to have His Kingdom? Certainly not. It is God’s favor to give us His Kingdom, and He is pleased to do so. So all that is left for us to do is to treasure, choose and seek this favor instead of trying to earn His rewards.
Let me tell you that this is by no means easy. There is a strong gravitation towards the other direction – to do something to earn God’s favor. It will be a big mistake to underestimate our tendency to do something in our quest for His Kingdom. We like to do something and to know that we can do something. Like I say, we are so used to living like that. We need to have tangible steps to take to have the Kingdom. This is one reason why Jesus used such a strong word as “seek” for something that is readily accessible to the believer. You need to overcome your natural tendency to do something to possess His Kingdom. To put it bluntly, the kind of idea that says that you should serve God fervently and He will reward you with blessings is not “seeking His Kingdom”. It is not what Matt 6:33 means. This is at best Law and works, but His Kingdom is one of Grace and favor.
Abraham was a case in point. God promised him that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky. But after decades of waiting he didn’t even have a son because his wife Sarah was barren. So he tried to help God out by sleeping with the maid of his wife. He thought the child that resulted from this union would inherit God’s promise. He thought that by his own effort he could possess God’s Kingdom. But God said no. Abraham had to wait until he was a hundred years old and Sarah over ninety before she conceived and gave birth to Isaac – the one to inherit God’s promise. The Bible says that Abraham’s body was then as good as dead, so there’s no question it was God’s intervention that brought about a miracle. God is able to bring His Kingdom upon us without our help.
It’s plain and clear now that to “seek” His Kingdom is not so much our doing something as it is a changing of our mind. It is not about what we do, but how we think. Let’s take our desire for wealth for example. I believe the way of thinking that is in line with Kingdom principle is this: do not look to our income to supply what we need and desire. Instead, look to God. If God choose to use our income to supply what we want, that is fine. But if not, He must be free to use whatever means He likes. He is very creative and we cannot limit Him. Once we think like this we will not limit the source of our wealth to our income. (Remember, we said that wealth is not defined by the amount of money that we have, but the state of being whereby we have all our need met and more.) We will not rely on our income and work hard to maintain or increase it to obtain what we want. In fact we will find that we become open to opportunities and we are free to enjoy our work without having the pressure to squeeze everything out of it. We will be looking to God alone to supply what we want. We will find our wealth in His Kingdom.
He will supply. His name is Jehovah Jireh – God our Provider.
Photo Credit: Salvatore Vuono on FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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