I don't know how many times that I have read the Scripture from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, "Seek first the kingdom of God and everything will be added to you."--more than I can count. After a 7 day personal retreat a year and a half ago, this was the one thing that the Holy Spirit seemed to say to me one more time. Have you ever had the experience of suddenly getting a completely new angle on a passage? This happened to me the other day in a time of prayer and relationship building with some wonderful pastors, believing businesspeople and various kinds of church leaders in Kansas City. (There are some really great things that God is presently doing through a unity and prayer movment in our region that has been simmering for a long time.)
I have often thought about and attempted to live out the principle modeled to us by Jesus in his earthly ministry. He didn't take his own initiatives, but relied on the Father and the Spirit to guide him into the work of service that were prepared beforehand for him to walk into. However, I never before applied these words of Jesus above into the mix of this way of life. When I have been challenged to "seek first the kingdom" I have always applied it, and exclusively so, to my personal consecration and a lifestyle of "seeking" God with prayer, study, worship, fasting, etc. I have limited it to devotional disciplines.
But the other day...I suddenly saw it applying to "seeking out" what God is doing, quite apart from me, in the world and community around me. It came almost like this, "Michael, are you 'seeking' to discover, perceive , discern and cooperate with 'My kingdom' activity that is breaking out all about you and the people of your city in both dramatic and subtle ways?" I realized immediately that this search would quickly take me beyond the self-imposed boundaries of my little world and my limited capacities out into the wide-open spaces of my Father's world so that I could "see and enter the kingdom of God" (Jn 3) in new ways. Even if I never get to personally participate in some aspects of this great work of God that are assigned to others, still, I can at least bless and honor what God is doing. (And I guess, in this way, I actually can personally participate in whatever work of God that I am allowed to perceive!)
As we are called to "seek first" the kingdom of God and His righteousness (or justice), maybe a big part of it is simply to be willing to make it our priority look around us with the eyes of our enlightened hearts and "find" the activity of the Trinity. And...when we discover it, to also find a way to "bless" what we see God doing. Maybe applying these words of Jesus from this angle will position us, along with a healthy personal devotional life, to have "all the other necessary things" added to us. I wonder how many things I have missed out on already because of limiting my "seeking the kingdom" to my little world? Oh well, no time to waste on such regrets, let me get on with a broader approach.
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