Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Building your kingdom


Kingdom - a domain ruled or reigned over by an individual.
Do you rule over your domain?  Do you consider your domain as your kingdom? How do you pursue your kingdom?  Do you first pursue the Kingdom of God?
 
Matthew 6:25-34
Do Not Worry
    25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

If you are trying to pursue life and gain as much as you can without pursuing God first, how do you succeed?  

Well in my life I only ever succeeded after I first pursued God.  When I first started my career I prayed to God that He would watch over my career. 31 plus years later and I am living my dream. 

Now I am not saying that just that one prayer to God lead me to where I am.  I had to continually pursue God and trying to do His will, in which He has constantly and continually built my kingdom. There were many times in my life that I thought I could build my kingdom on my own. WRONG! When I thought that and did not pursue His will there were always setbacks or disappointments. 

So how do we pursue the Kingdom of God? Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33 to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God, and God's righteousness, and if we do, essentially everything else will fall into its proper place and priority in our lives.  As a child of God, know that it is your Father’s pleasure to meet all your needs. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:32, … your heavenly Father knows that you need them.But God does not want you to seek after things. He wants you to seek first His kingdom. And when you do that, all the things that you need, will be added to you!

This means we have to, first, trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Then we are called to seek after God or have a personal relationship with Jesus. Once we have that relationship, we want to please God. One of those ways to please God is to do good works.  Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We must remember that we were born to serve our God, not born with an entitlement in which God serves us. Once we first seek God, everything else will fall into place.

We are also reminded that God will give you the keys of heaven: Matthew 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

How are you seeking your kingdom?

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