Seeking The Kingdom of God

I had two email messages tonight that I really needed to hear. One was from a website that I found yesterday when I was writing yesterday’s post, Desiring God, and the other was from another website I found a few days ago when I was writing another post, Deep Truths. I’m finding that writing this blog is helping me so much – I started writing it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and I understand why. I thought it was to help other people, but it’s really helping me probably most of all.

This has been one of the toughest struggles of my life that I’ve been going through. Tough because I’m learning how to go through it in a new way, in God’s way, and that can be really painful and frightening sometimes. Even though the way I used to do things was not productive or healthy for me, it is the way I knew how to do things and that’s always, for some strange reason that I will  never understand, the way that feels most comfortable. When we have done things all of our lives in one way, when we have learned to do things in a certain way, it’s hard to unlearn them, even when those ways are killing us.

The first message that I read had a devotional blog post by Jonathan Parnell from the website Desiring God, www.desiringgod.org, titled “It’s Time to Celebrate!” He uses the story of the Prodigal Son and the son who does not want to rejoice at the homecoming party that their father throws for the Prodigal Son who has returned. He writes about how we are the same when we are not able to rejoice and take part in the celebration that the Lord is creating all over the earth by bringing people into the family of God through salvation. I had one of those ouch moments when I read that, because I realized that for all of my wanting to be someone who is giving and loving and pouring out of myself for the Lord, with everything that I have been dealing with I have been forgetting to rejoice about all that God is doing and all that He has done and will do. Just the fact of His salvation in my own life and in the lives of people who I know and the many others who I don’t is a cause for rejoicing. Jonathan Parnell is right – I need to stop thinking about me and my own troubles and rejoice in the great celebration the Lord is inviting me to.

In Matthew 6:25-33, Jesus tells us, “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil, nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

If I am truly seeking His kingdom and His righteousness first and foremost, then I will find myself rejoicing always as I see the ways that His power and His glory are covering the earth. I won’t be worried or focused on my own wants and needs – I will see His great provision and be thankful for His merciful salvation.

The second message I received was from Deep Truths, www.deeptruths.com, message #16 of a series of daily messages that James Arendt, the webmaster, sends out if you sign up for his email list. This one used Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous!” to share the message that is the second part of that verse, “but the Lord delivereth him out of them all!” I’ve kept the exclamation points in that James Arendt uses, because I love them – they are so full of energy and light and life. These are things to be excited about, to rejoice about, to praise God about. Yes, we will face many trials, but the Lord will deliver us from them all – Hallelujah!

When I went back to read Psalm 34, there is this beautiful passage in verses 8-10, “Taste and see that the Lord is good. O the joys of those who take refuge in Him! Fear the Lord, you His godly people, for those who fear Him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.” It sounds to me like seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and having all those other things added to us.

I love the way the Lord will talk to us, using whatever He can to bring us to a message that heals our spirit and brings a renewing of the way that we think. I had been so cast down, feeling so low because of all that I have been dealing with, and all I needed to do to get out of my slump was to look up instead of down. All I needed to do was to start to recognize that if I sought after Him, He would take care of everything else.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan