The song, Jesus I Love You (click
if you are not familiar) is one of my favorites sung by the Brooklyn Tabernacle
Choir. As Believers we love to sing songs about how much we love Him, or the
power in His name. We even love to tell others how much He means to us. But,
the Messiah has a requirement to our love for Him and that is, “If you love
me, you will obey my commands!”
Do you see the “if”?
He knew for many the raising of the hands in church or at concerts would be
show and the voices of “Oh, how I love Jesus,” would be lip service. Because God
had already said, “These people come near to me with their
mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their
worship of me is based on merely human rules they have
been taught.” (Isaiah 23:19) Sounds like us today.
37 Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (my emphases)
Wow! That's a lot to think about, but, before I go any further…I want to add one more.
When Jesus told the disciples he would not be with them much longer, he also told them, “34A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
Jesus gives much instruction as to how anyone who claims to be His disciple is to live, but these three seem to be the cream of the crop and ALL hang on Love.
Where do we start? Well, I say, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness!” because, this is where we find out who God really is and how a real kingdom works (Queen Elizabeth in the UK, does not rule over a real kingdom.).
In the fall of last year, I started studying what I call “Kingdom Living”. At first I didn’t know how to go about it, but I wanted desperately to understand what Jesus meant when He said, “Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” I just jumped in believing that if I seek God I would find Him—and I did!
First I began to meditate on the, “Do not worry” (click) part of Sermon on the Mount. I have read it many times over the years, but I now approached it by leaving behind the things I had heard, been taught or made up in my own mind, and asked the Holy Spirit for new eyes to see, and clearer ears to hear.
I don’t remember how long I stayed on this alone, but I tell you that many questions arose for me. One of the biggest was putting forth effort to live in “today” and let tomorrow take care of itself. It takes purpose and work to achieve this. Of course we look at tomorrow; it is an everyday part of life. Pastors prepare their sermons in advance, we have all sorts of things we must do to prepare for tomorrow, but this is not what Jesus is talking about. He is talking about looking at tomorrow and the next day and the tomorrows after, focused on the things that steal our hope, joy, and overwhelm and consume us. You know—those things He has yet to show us how He is going to work them out.
Something comes up in life you have no control over and apart from God moving in the situation, things look pretty bleak 3 weeks from now. What are we to do? Live in today and stop looking 3 weeks ahead. And once we begin to do that, we quench the fear of what tomorrow will hold or not hold, and we can be grateful for the good in our lives for today and work on building our faith for whatever tomorrow does holds—if we get to see tomorrow—that is.
If we truly believe that God is working all things together for our good, then why are we fretting about certain situations? We can’t have it both ways. Either we believe or we doubt—we must choose one or the other.
This was only the beginning. The deeper I dug into how real kingdoms were ran (the way God set them up) the more I began to see what it means to be subject to a King. No one questions the King and His authority and everything in the kingdom belongs to Him.
As I read through the Gospels, I began to see how much Jesus likened so many things to the “Kingdom of God”! And everything He talked about was not from Him, but from our Father.
Have I completed my study? No! I will never be done on this earth, because “Kingdom living” is a way of life for the Believer and is never ending.
What I have found is, when we get a glimpse or a truer understanding of what it is to serve our King, then our love for Him grows in our hearts, our souls, our minds and we begin to love with our strength. It becomes easier to love ourselves (through the lens of Christ) and therefore love our neighbors the same. The desire to live a life that pleases the King makes it easier to give, share and forgive. We learn to love as Jesus commands and God equips us to do. The bottom line….
…We look more and more like Christ to our King and to the world.
Sisters, there is so much to learn about “Kingdom Living”! You don’t have to wait for your pastor to maybe start teaching on it…pick up your bibles and go for it!
I did a Biblegateway.com word search on the word “Kingdom and King, so many scriptures came up I didn’t know where to start, so I prayed and let the Holy Spirit pick out the scriptures (Old Testament and New), for me and took it from there.
There are way too many of us who do not look like Christ to the world. We are a poor witness at best. (I have been there myself!) That’s the bad news, but the good news is…you can turn that around starting today!
Don’t be afraid to study and read on your own. Ditch the so called “devotional books” for awhile and just read your Bible. Ask the Holy Spirit for fresh eyes and an open heart to receive. Ask, Him to help you put aside those things you have heard that are not correct or you have misunderstood.
We can never go wrong when asking the One whose job it is to help us…for help. Amen!
Until next week...
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