Matthew 6:33 "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else,
and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."
"Pursue your dreams" is a phrase we hear every
day. People compete to get into the best universities, to land the best jobs,
to climb the corporate ladder the fastest all in the hope of finding
satisfaction and fulfillment, of finding their dream.
Parents will do almost anything to see that their children
have every advantage. To provide opportunities "we didn't have."
Billions of dollars are spent in this country each year on
advertising to entice people to purchase things they "can't live
without."
Credit card debt is at an all-time high because as a culture
we have decided that we can have whatever we want whenever we want it.
In our culture we pursue what we think is important and do
whatever we must to get it. We will run
after the hottest new trend, the latest fad, and the biggest names. But are we
willing to do whatever it takes to run after God? Are we willing to give up, put off, change,
and step out in order to live a holy life and fulfill God’s dreams/plans for
us?
I read the following illustration about chasing a dream that
illustrates what often happens in our Christian lives.
A young teenage boy had just gotten his driver's license.
When he got home, he asked his father, who was a minister, if they could
discuss the use of the car. His father took him into his study and said to the
boy, "I'll make a deal with you. If you bring up your grades, study your
Bible a little, and get a haircut, then we'll talk about the use of the
car."
After about a month, the boy came back and again asked his
father if they could discuss the use of the car. They again went to the
father's study where his father said, "Son, I've been so very proud of
you. You have brought up your grades, you've studied your Bible diligently, but
you didn't get your haircut." The young man waited a moment and replied,
"Dad, I've been thinking about that. You know, Samson had long hair, Moses
had long hair, Noah had long hair, even Jesus had long hair..." His father
interrupted him at that point and said, "Yes son, and they walked
everywhere they went!"
This young man was so close to reaching his dream, yet not
close enough. He was willing to do
almost everything necessary to make his dream come true.
Most of us would say we want more of God. We want deeper relationships/fellowship with
other believers. We want to fulfill the plans God has for our lives, however,
too often in our spiritual lives we allow other things to become more important
than our pursuit of God. We allow other
things to controls us and crowd out the things of God.
Psalm 42:1-5, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I
long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand
before him? Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies
continually taunt me, saying, ‘Where is this God of yours?’ My heart is
breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of
worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and
giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration! Why am I discouraged? Why
is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my
Savior and my God!”
In this Psalm we read the sad lament of a King who has been
forced to leave Jerusalem and the temple (the presence of God). “For some reason the psalmist is forced to be
separated from Jerusalem, the place God has chosen to make His throne. His
distance from the Lord and the presence of his enemies causes him to cry out to
the Lord for help. The psalmist suffers because he is separated from the
temple, the place God specifically set apart for worship during the period
between David and Jesus. The psalmist desires to return to the temple and the
assurance of God’s life-giving presence.” (The Reformation Study Bible)
David longed for the presence of the Lord. He was desperate for God. How desperate are
we?
As I had my quiet time this morning I watched a male quail
chase a female quail. She ran for over a
half hour back and forth across the street from the neighbor’s yard to our
yard. He did not give up for one
minute. If she ran left he ran
left. I she went around a tree he want
around a tree. He didn't think about the
possible danger of running across the street repeatedly. He wanted her!! Nothing else mattered.
This should be how we pursue God and his plans for our
lives. We need to set our hearts on the
things of God and not allow the cares of life, the temptations the devil throws
at us, our friends, our job/career, or anything else take our attention away
from this pursuit. Just like that male
quail set his heart on his mate, we must set our heart on pursuing God above
all else.
Colossians 3:2 “Think about the things of heaven, not the
things of earth.”
Will we pursue God at all costs? Will we lay aside the weights that hold us back?
Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of
witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us
down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with
endurance the race God has set before us.”
All Scripture is NLT unless otherwise stated.
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