What God taught me today with Bible Study reading... Interesting it goes off one of the first verses I learned as a child... “But seek first His kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 NASB Seek - The word used in this quotation from Yeshua means “to deliberately strive and desire something as an act of the will.” It is the Greek verb zeteo. Here the context implies putting your whole life at the disposal of God’s rule and will so that nothing takes greater priority. This meaning carries over the Old Testament idea that seeking God is an activity of the whole being, not simply an intellectual pursuit. Everything that comprises who we are is to be offered as a living sign of complete surrender to the pursuit of God and His kingdom. God-consciousness must be the ethos of life. This verse tells us that whenever we consciously commit ourselves in utter abandonment to God’s will, He faithfully cares for our needs. In the previous verse, Yeshua simply says that God knows exactly what we need and we can have every confidence that He will provide for us when we surrender to Him. This is the essence of life in Christ. We could never do it alone, and we could never do it by just giving up. We had to surrender something to someone. We had to give ourselves completely to our powerlessness and let God do what only He could do. We didn’t know we could change until we gave up trying. Most people who are able to recognize the element of denial in their own lives clearly understand the need to surrender to the care of someone else. But we still don’t. We don’t do what we intellectually know must be done because we are not intellectual robots. We are emotionally driven, embodied persons and most of the time it is our emotions that have the last word in our decisions. We don’t surrender because we are afraid. First, we are afraid because we are unsure about what will happen. We want control (isn’t that what addictive behavior is really all about?). Surrendering means giving up that control, even if it is illusory. Secondly, we are afraid because our emotional lives hunger for care and contentment and we don’t trust God to give these. He might forgive us, but forgiveness is little comfort if it leaves me in the valley of agonizing toil and hopelessness. I need to feel His love, not simply know it as some theological construct. Seeking is a very strong word. It isn’t just “looking around” or “checking it out”. It is fervent hunting. Every parent knows what this word means. It is the intensity of looking for a lost child. Nothing else matters until that child is found. We are consumed with looking. When your life is consumed with looking for God, God will find you. And you will be completely cared for. Jesus said it another way. “Happy the ones who are desperate for God because God arrives for them”.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 02:01:33 +0000
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