“Lord Jesus, please enable us to seek first Your kingdom. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 3:9-10 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. (10) Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
God moves people from where they are to where He longs for them to be. He longs to move people from their brokenness into His Shalom. Psalms 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds. This is the heart concern of God.
This is the understanding of what is ministry. Usually, we consider the activities that we do as our ministry. Our activities are not our ministry, since we are not focussing on the transition that must happen to our audience, from the state where they are to come into the Shalom of God.
Let us consider the ministry of Apostle Paul Romans 15:16 that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
The Gentiles were in darkness, idolatry, witchcraft, superstitions, unbelief, immorality and much more. They were in this terrible state but Paul was moving them to become an offering acceptable to God and sanctified by His Holy Spirit.
An offering acceptable to God must be without blemish. It is the work of God in a person’s life, by His Holy Spirit that makes us sanctified. This transition, for the Gentiles, was an enormous journey. Paul’s ministry was to journey with the Gentiles, building them brick by brick, so that they will move to the place where God desired them to be.
This vision for the ministry that he, Paul, must do during his lifetime, was powerfully revealed to him, on his travel to Damascus.
Acts 26:16-19 But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. (17) I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, (18) to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’ (19) “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
Paul was a minister, a witness, a priest, a preacher, a teacher, a guide, a mentor, and several more, to the Gentiles. This work, that consumed Paul’s life, in itself, was not his ministry. His ministry was to move the Gentiles from where they were, into the Shalom of God.
This is the clarity each of us must have. We see people spending themselves on the processes, but not focusing on the transition of their target audience. In several cases, we are not even sure, who is our target audience.
There are needs all around us but each of us has been birthed in a particular milieu, time, place, culture, people group and with a set of skills, for a reason. We are here because God has a design for us and through us, during our lifetime. *He desires that we seek Him and know from Him what He expects us to accomplish.
This is what it means to seek first the kingdom of God. What we are mostly doing is to seek first our own well-being and then we take an effort to also be involved in activities that we think please God.
Can we take a decision today, to seek first His kingdom? Let us also teach our children to seek first His kingdom.
The grave mistake that we are doing for ourselves and our children is that we, both overtly and covertly, communicate that money and material success is our/their goal in life. We even evaluate ourselves/our children and we compare ourselves/our children with others based on how well we have done, materially. In doing all of this we stray away from God.
I Timothy 6:9-10 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. (10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
This is an important matter and we will take time to dwell on this issue.
As His church, it must be revealed in us that we have lived for His kingdom, not for our personal well-being.
When we stand before the Lord, we will have to give an account for the motives behind our decisions and choices in life. Were they for His kingdom or were they for our personal comfort, wellbeing, security, and future?
Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (13) And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.