It was a long and tiring 4th of July, resulting in droopy eyes and a muddled brain from lack of sleep. Sunday wasn't much better. You see, Jean and I had been invited to some friends home for lunch, which was wonderful and delicious. However, when we left and began searching for the exit from the housing addition, a weird thing happened. I came to an intersection that I've stopped at dozens of times, an intersection that would lead us directly to our own front door; that is, if I turned to the right. As it was, I stopped and waited for some traffic to pass, then promptly turned left to go home. Jean said, "You want to go the other way." I said, "No, I don't." She said, "Yes, you do," and so on and so forth. It took a couple hundred yards to figure out I was clueless and had taken the wrong turn simply because I'm stubborn.
Jesus made a "stubborn challenging" statement in Matthew 6:33. It's one we know well; "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." It is an amplification of the prayer he taught his buddies earlier in the chapter, something about praying.... "Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." For his will to be done, in the economy he has established in which men have the freedom to choose, there must be men who seek that will. The severe wrestling match occurs every time we choose to obey our own will above the Lord's. It may not cost us in the short term, but it eventually leads to some pretty severe challenges of leadership.
You see, the Lord offers us a pretty clear choice every single day. "Follow me, or follow yourself." Now, I don't know about you, but it seems that if I follow myself, I would basically be turning in circles all day. (No, I'm rested up and stopped speaking gibberish yesterday...just hang with me here...) In other words, I am not a proper leader for myself. I may be built to lead, but that leadership is meant to help OTHERS to follow whomever I am following. Get it? You cannot follow yourself and get anywhere. It is anatomically impossible!
Now, for us, the difficulty lies in wanting to be our own boss. We choose to place life-survival, i.e., eating, shelter, health, clothing, etc., in the position of supremacy. We think about it, we work for it, we allow life to consume our energy, thoughts, and even our dedication. God gets the left-overs. When that happens, we find ourselves wandering in endless, meaningless circles that have hardly any fulfillment at all. Jesus knew it would be that way, so he told us to establish someone else as our supreme leader....God Almighty!
In so doing, Jesus is not commanding that we give no thought to our food, clothing, health, housing, or life-purpose. He simply wants the first place we apply our energy to be toward him and his righteousness. If we do that, by worship, dedication, affection, and obedience, he promises to make sure the life-concerning issues are met. His will is done! Our will is overcome! All by the daily choice we make to follow his supremacy.
So, what's our problem? I mean, the creator of the world wants to create life for us everyday, yet we balk. Why? There are probably several answers, some more profound than others...but I think it has to do with a thing called RISK. Are we willing to risk giving up our supreme status to follow someone we cannot see? Is it too hard to give up the rule of daily life to a set of principles? Are we afraid that our self-workaholism will really be seen to be less valuable than a disciplined life of worship? Don't know, but it's food for thought. Think about it.
Pastor Jim
P.S. I fully understand the sin-nature issue and its mean involvement!
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