Saturday, February 25, 2006

We Don't Have To Take Thought For Our Own Lives

“Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? Matthew 6:25

“But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

We don’t have to take thought for being blessed, because through the power of Christ, God’s blessing will overtake us! We don’t have to take thought for being victorious when attacked by our enemies, because we are now more than conquerors through Christ Who loves us. We don’t have to take thought for having an abundance of goods, or being blessed at our work, or providing for our families, because through Christ God will pour out an abundance of blessings that will overtake us! The Truth of the power of our salvation is that we don’t even have to take thought for being Holy, because Jesus came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly! Hallelujah, God said that all of His blessings would overtake us because of Jesus, so it is the absolute Truth! Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has given us all of God’s blessings freely and abundantly! Now ask yourself this, how much time do we all spend praying for being blessed at work, or praying for bills to be paid, or praying to be holy? When Jesus said that He came so that we might have all of His blessings abundantly and that all of Gods blessings would overtake us! Jesus paid the price in full and through Jesus’ precious Blood all of the righteous requirements of the Law have now been fully met within all of us, who have been chosen and empowered by God to be saved!

Jesus teaches us that we are not to take thought for the our own lives, so what are we to take thought for? According to Jesus we are to take thought for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness! Jesus ever lives to intercede for us, and we are now one with Him, so we too have an anointed mind to ever live to intercede for others. Whatsoever thing a man soweth, that shall he reap! If we want to be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, we need to be the biggest servants, Matthew 23:11! Jesus taught us to take no thought for our own lives, and He came and was sacrificed so that we could actually live and realize it! God never requires us to do anything that He has not provided a way for Him to do it through us! God is within us, strengthening us, encouraging us, authoring our faith, and He is ever living to intercede for us. We are more than capable through Christ Who strengthens us to take absolutely no thought for these blessings of abundance to overtake us! How peaceful is that, you talk about an abundant life, not having to take thought for it as we enjoy it, wow! That is true Godly abundance! And we also have the full and complete power of God within us, so that we can absolutely ever live to serve others and serve the Kingdom of our Father! God is faithful, He is able, and He is willing to do what He has spoken!

2 comments:

Kaleb said...

Thanks for the word, Brad.

I would comment that I think there is a HUGE focus these days on the blessings of the Lord. And when taken into consideration with the sacrafices the Lord requires of us, as well, it is healthy to understand the blessings as well. I think the second part of your blog today was practical in that it emphasized that we need to leave the blessing to the Lord.

But anytime I see a message quoting Matthew 6:25-34, I try and get a chance to humbly point out the next chapter starts with, "Judge not..." take a look at chapter 7, in this new light... that is that many "Name it & Claim it" preachers negate the fact that God did not call everyone to achieve the same high level of financial, personal or religious freedom that we drink on a daily basis, here in the States.

God's Chosen people have lived a history full of dissapointments, struggles and other results of the sins in thier lives, however, God has been faithful to protect them tie and tiem again. He uses these trials to perfect them, just as He taught us in James and elsewhere.

Speaking of the Jews, God gave them a command regarding fellowshipping with Him. In Exodus 20, right after Moses presented the 10 Commandments to the Israelites, they told him they were afraid of God, for they ahd seen great signs of His power and might. They told Moses to go and talk with Him, but to tell God NOT to come and speak with them directly. God then told Moses to have the people learn to make altars of dirt (simple substance, not gold) which is exactly what mankind was made of (dirt). These altars were to be used to sacrafice for forgiveness of sin and also for fellowship offerings. We are also called to lay down our lives in a couple ways: A-to confess sin and strive for a repentant heart and life & B- to seek fellowship (a relationship) with the Lord.

I gues that was a long way to go about saying that I don't see any Biblical Consistancy with the ideas that some promote about God blessings (financially or otherwise) as a measure of God's happiness or closeness in relationship to a believer. We are all called to go through trials - it is through these that we are trained and grow closest to the Lord.

Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts. Your brother in Christ,

Kaleb

Brad said...

Thanks for the post. Wow! You seem to be like me, I could write about God forever. It never seems that I have enough space. I agree with you about the Name it and claim it guys. They tend to put all of the focus on our own abilities to believe God, when God's Truth is that we have His abilities working for us.

What God is trying to have me say is that it is all Him and that we are empowered by His Spirit to seek 1st the Kingdom, so that He can pour His blessing out upon us. Through Christ we have become one with our Father!

Jesus did teach us that our blessings should be measured on His level. It makes since, we are His body, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone. There will be trials and there will be tribulations, but it is always Christ within us and even in troubles we enjoy all of His blessings. Paul and Silas in prison, still were able to sing praises. John on an Island received the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Stephen was stoned and yet saw God and cried out for forgiveness. So wether we are abounding or abassing, we are always full of joy and blessings by the power of Christ that is within us and at work for us.

For this study God had me focus on the blessings of Jesus in our lives. There is no denying that Jesus clearly states that God is willing and able to pour out His incredible blessings through Him. Faith comes from hearing the Truth.

What I am getting at is this. I have never been used by God to raise the dead or walk on water, but God can do it, so a-men lets talk about it! The sowers sow the Word!

Thank you so much for posting. It was great!

Love

Brad