SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/9/2021 10:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Worry is Unreasonable Because of
Our Faith”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
6:31-33
Message of the verses: “31 “Do not worry
then, saying, ’What will we eat?’ or ’What will we drink?’ or ’What will we
wear for clothing?’ 32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for
your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first
His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
In
this passage and the ones before it Jesus was giving a series of rebukes to the
people of Israel, but at the end of these series of rebukes He gives a
beautiful promise: “But seek first His
kingdom and His righteousness; and a;; these things shall be added to you.” So what is the cause of worry? “The cause of worry is seeking the things of
this world, and the cause of contentment is seeking the things of God’s kingdom
and His righteous” writes John MacArthur.
He
goes on to explain “De” is primarily
a conjunction of contrasts, for which but is a good rendering. In the present context it carries the idea of
‘rather’ or ‘instead of.’ ‘Rather than
seeking and worrying about food, drink, and clothing like unbelievers do,’
Jesus says, ‘focus you attention and hopes on the things of the Lord and He
will take care of all your needs.’”
I
think at times, and probably most times, living in a society that we live in
can cause us to lose our focus on the very things that are important, the very
thing that Jesus is talking about in verse thirty-three. Jesus Christ came to planet earth in order to
redeem people from their sins and all a person has to do is to understand that
they are sinners because of the way that we are all born, and then we sin
because we are sinners, and the only way we can do something about that is to
accept the forgiveness that comes from Jesus Christ. Once that happens then a person becomes a
believer and from that time on his priorities change to serving the Lord. Sometimes “things” get in our way, things
like what Jesus is talking about here, and if we are afraid to lose these “things”
we begin to worry. Jesus tells us not to
worry, and we have learned that worry is a sin.
I have said something from time to time in my Spiritual Diaries that I
learned when I was an early believer and it is kind of hard for me to write it,
but I will do my best, and once I explain it then I think you will understand
it. “Keep your emfasass on the right
siliva” is the saying and that means that we are to keep our emphasis on the
right syllable. We are to keep our minds
on our Lord whom we owe everything too and not on the “things” that Jesus is
talking about here.
MacArthur
writes “Seeking God’s kingdom is losing ourselves in obedience to the Lord to
the extent that we can say with Paul ‘I do not consider my life of any account
as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which
I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace
of God’ (Acts 20:24). To seek first God’s
kingdom is to pour out our lives in the eternal work of our heavenly Father.”
It
goes without saying that seeking God’s kingdom is also to seek to win people
into that kingdom, that they might be saved and through this that God would be
glorified. MacArthur adds “IT is to have
our heavenly Fathr’s own truth, love, and righteousness manifest in our lives,
and to have ‘peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Rom. 14:17). We also seek God’s kingdom when we yearn for
the return of the King in His millennial glory to establish His kingdom on
earth and usher in His eternal kingdom.”
As
we seek God’s kingdom by hungering and thirsting for righteousness, that will
keep us from hungering and thirsting for the things of this world which one day
all burn up.
1/9/2021 10:59 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment