February 4, 2009

God's "Unreasonable" Faith

Jesus said "seek first the kingdom of God." These are the most revolutionary words that human ears have ever heard! Putting God's kingdom as our top priority in life is so counter-intuitive to our human natures, that we must practice this daily. We think "but I must make enough money to pay my bills"; "I must have enough food to eat and clothes to wear." Our human natures say our greatest concern should be taking care of ourselves. But God says differently.
Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, always maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to be concerned about taking care of the other things of life.
"Do not worry about your life....But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:25-33)
Of course Jesus was not teaching that we should care about nothing and take no thought for anything. We would be foolish to do so, and the Lord has given us brains to use. But Jesus does say that it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. He taught 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. He is simply saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with God absolutely first, and everything else second.
The Holy Spirit must bring us into this harmony, and we must be open to His moving inside us, daily practicing keeping our relationship with the Lord as our utmost priority in life; trusting in God to provide for all our needs as we do so. And He will.
(idea from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest)

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