Seek the Kingdom

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Matthew 6:33 (KJV)

Welcome to Made In Truth, today we'll talk bout the very beginning of the Christian walk. Being a Christian is not like deciding to take a trip, or deciding to go to college, or making any other descision that will ultimately be temporary, being a Christian is a whole new way of life, in fact, the Lord Jesus describes it as being Born Again, meaning that all things are new because you are a new creature, here's the supporting verse:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

So what are those old things? and what are those things that become new? The old things are the things of the world, the things of our lustful desires, the things that were destroying us, the things that were hurting us and hurting others, there's much more to say about this, but we'll talk about it later. The new things are the things that protect life, that encourage people, that build us up from within and produces things worth of sharing with others, things of joyfulness and much more.

But there's a problem, we can say "this is good", or "this is bad" and live our lives according to that, which is what most in the world do, but the question is, by what standard do we decide something is good or bad? most people decide something is good or bad based on their experiences, their feelings, their fears, etc. For intance, if a grandma loves her grandchild and the grandchild knows that grandman loves him, yet grandma smokes weed, chances are the child will associate smoking weed as something good, so the standard becomes our own understanding, so just because we believe it's okay to allow something into our lives doesn't mean it is good.

What's the right standard? Well, to get right to the point, man's word is not the right standard, meaning, every man will get it wrong, no matter who they are, a scientist, grandma, a pastor, a politician, a philantropist, your meditation teacher, every person will and has fallen short.

God's Word is the right standard, that's because God is perfect and we're not, God is powerful and we're not, it was God who created us, not the other way around, now this is where your mind may start shifting, and you may feel resistance, that's because the world has influenced you and more than that, there are active evil forces influencing people towards destruction, so it can get confusing if we try to figure this thing out on our own, that's why I'm writing this, because I truly believe there's a way out of this mess, and that's God's Word.

The good things in life are worth fighting for, a Salmon swims upstream for a good purpose, (I don't know much about Salmon, I do like it though), we take care of our children, even though many times we get stressed out, we go to work, even though we may not even like our jobs, when we're little we would eat our vegetables simply because we were told they were good for us, so deep down we tend to do the right thing despite of what we want, but that's not always the case, there are times when we willingly go down the broken road, willingly open the pantry looking for cookies, willing open the fridge looking for ice cream, and these are the mild things, then there are drugs, gambling, bad habits, etc.

So the answer is that we have to make an intentional effort, even of the sacrificial caliber to obtain something, but even doing so could be a false road, that's why I am pointing you to God's Word in the Bible, because if you want to do things the right way, you have to start with the perfect Word of God, making the intentional effort to believe it, to think about it, to ponder it, to reflect upon it, to dress yourself with it, for instance, the Bible starts with "In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth.", do you believe this? Because if not, then how are you going to believe the rest? So you have to fight to find the answer that fully pursuades you, that's your point of rest, the truth, that's why the Bible says the truth shall set you free, because once you find it, you'll have rest.

The goal is to be built the right way, which is under the canopy of God's Word, when we read it, when we hear it, we begin changing from within, this is very important, because it means that we're being purified, the old is coming out, and the new is coming in, this is called Sanctification, here's what the Lord says about it:

John 17:15-19 (KJV) I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

The importance of reading God's Word is of life or death, it's sort of like being in the desert and there's a bottle of water, you can choose to drink it, or not! But what will the result be? You'll grow weaker, you'll begin to think things that are not, and basically you'll begin to perish, it's the same thing with God's Word, your soul is currently malnourished if you have not read God's Word, it is dying, that's why you have all these flies sworming around you, because there's something dying, that's why the bulchers are circling around you because they're waiting for something to die soon.

What are these flies and bulchers? Whatever your body wants to consume that's destroying it, for instance, pornography, gambling, drugs, smoking, foul language, anger, evil deeds, hateful actions, and these are the things that you're letting yourself express, what about the things that find a nesting place in your heart or your mind, that you're harboring, that you know are wrong and on top of all that, you have the bad influences, your "friends", pulling you back into the worlds, asking if you're ready to go back to the evil trash that's destroying you, under the guise that it's fun and that's the only way to keep friends.

Well, the good things are worth fighting for, so make an effort to read God's Word, make an effort to obey it, make an effort to understand it, God's Word is important, the things of the world are not important, what's important to God is that you build yourself with God's Word and that you learn to love your neighbor; the world is trying to keep you busy, entertained, distracted from the things God has for you, He wants to give you a future, but you keep jumping up and down in the world, listen to His Word:

Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Don't let the world rob you of God's gifts, and keep in mind this, the most important thing is God's glory, His righteousness will prevail, I say that because a lot of people, include some churches believe that the most important thing is our Salvation, don't get me wrong, our Salvation is very important, but God's righteousness is more important than our life, than our Salvation, that's basically why Jesus die on the cross, because God's righteousness was glorified by Jesus with His own life, so I say to you gently, don't be thinking that God will save you because you're a nice and welcoming person, you need to read the Bible and understand it, now this goes according to your capacity, and God is mindful of your capacity, so to close this article, and in summary, seeking God's Kingdom begins by reading God's Word in the Bible, this way we'll find and understand what righteousness He wants us to implement in our lives, it's the foundation of living, again, according to our capacity, because say we get to Heaven, and God asks us what did you do with the time I gave you? Well, I was partying, doing drugs or whatever, we'll that's not going to go well.

But I don't want to let you go without telling you the great gift that Jesus purchased for you and I with His death on the cross, Salvation, God's Glory and Salvation, the Salvation of your soul, very important, the greatest gift from God to you, how thankful should we be? So thankful that it ought to change our lives, every day reading His Word, every day praying to Him, every day with a joyful and merry heart because of what Jesus has done for us, these things in themselves will start getting rid of those flies and bulchers, because you're not going to die, but life eternal awaits you and the riches, glory, majesty, love and peace of God and His Kingdom will be your rejoicing life forever.

Check out our other articles, althought this is the first one, I'm hoping to write more in regards to questions we may have, this one hits home, because sometimes we just work and work and pursue money and lose sight of what's truly important, so it is also a reflection for me. Thank you for reading and God bless you!