Image by Daniel Reche from Pixabay Counting the Cost: What do we forfeit when we fail to seek the Lord God and His Kingdom first?
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:31-33 NLT
When we fail to seek Him first above all else, being obedient to His Word, we forfeit what we are asking Him for. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. James 4:2b-3 NLT This may sound extreme or harsh in contrast with the modern day self-focused “gospel” of prosperity and “God wants you to be happy”. But James spoke even more boldly of our priorities and what we were seeking. You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the Spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him. James 4:4-5 NLT
He is saying that when the things of this world are our focus we are being unfaithful to the Lord God! An adulterer is unfaithful to their spouse.
What is your focus when you pray?
You may find that seeking the Lord God first is difficult because your wants and needs have your attention. Your mind may be consumed with a pressing need or want. But persevere. The Lord God already knows what you need before you even ask. He knows you come to Him with many problems, burdens, and questions. He understands our needs. He wants us to seek His face before we seek His hand. It’s not the prayer line we need so much as time in His Presence. When His Presence gets into your life, He will fix in one moment the things you have been worried about and working on for days, weeks, even years!
Keep in mind, seeking the Lord God is like praising Him. Your focus must be on Him and He must be your delight. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 We as children and citizens of His Kingdom must spend more personal time with Him. We need His Presence to move in our lives. Develop a strong hunger for the King’s presence in your life every day. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:1-2
Walking in the Lord God’s ways and obeying Him in all things is a privilege, not a burden. Yet we often treat Him as such. Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT
When we praise and seek the Lord God, He turns around and finds us.
If many obstacles in your life are distracting you, making it to difficult to seek the Lord God, what are you to do? Get rid of the junk in your life. There are times we need to take an inventory of our life and clean house. Do you have a junk drawer in your home? That one drawer where you toss every little thing you don’t know what to do with, but might need? Well sometimes we create a “junk drawer” in our minds. A place to dump all those thoughts we may need later. Now it’s time to clean out that junk drawer! So many thoughts, worries, and fears there is no room for the Lord God’s Presence. You will show me the path of life; In Your Presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11
Remember, as the children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, Joshua recounted all that the Lord God had done for them and then asked them to choose who they would serve. “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15
The people chose to serve the Lord God. So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.” Joshua 24:16-18
Then Joshua charged them and made a covenant with them: But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”
So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses!”
“Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”
And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!” Joshua 24:19-23
In other words, he told them to make themselves qualified for serving the Lord God. They made a commitment—a covenant—to Him and swore to it as if they were in a court, going before a judge! Seeking the Lord God and His Kingdom is always this way. You cannot keep the idols of your heart and expect to receive the gift of the Lord God’s Presence. Repentance is, therefore, an essential ingredient of seeking and praising Him. When you get rid of all the obstacles, clutter, and noise of your life He will come and you will feel His Presence.
We cannot live with one foot in the world and
one foot in His Presence.
He is calling you to be “All in”!
Remember, your faith in His Word is your greatest asset in the Kingdom.
All scriptures are NKJV unless noted
W.R. Luchie
www.kingdomcitizens.org
This article may only be reproduced, in print or on the internet, if the author's name and website address are included at the end of the article as originally placed. Thank you
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:31-33 NLT
When we fail to seek Him first above all else, being obedient to His Word, we forfeit what we are asking Him for. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. James 4:2b-3 NLT This may sound extreme or harsh in contrast with the modern day self-focused “gospel” of prosperity and “God wants you to be happy”. But James spoke even more boldly of our priorities and what we were seeking. You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the Spirit He has placed within us should be faithful to Him. James 4:4-5 NLT
He is saying that when the things of this world are our focus we are being unfaithful to the Lord God! An adulterer is unfaithful to their spouse.
What is your focus when you pray?
You may find that seeking the Lord God first is difficult because your wants and needs have your attention. Your mind may be consumed with a pressing need or want. But persevere. The Lord God already knows what you need before you even ask. He knows you come to Him with many problems, burdens, and questions. He understands our needs. He wants us to seek His face before we seek His hand. It’s not the prayer line we need so much as time in His Presence. When His Presence gets into your life, He will fix in one moment the things you have been worried about and working on for days, weeks, even years!
Keep in mind, seeking the Lord God is like praising Him. Your focus must be on Him and He must be your delight. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 We as children and citizens of His Kingdom must spend more personal time with Him. We need His Presence to move in our lives. Develop a strong hunger for the King’s presence in your life every day. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:1-2
Walking in the Lord God’s ways and obeying Him in all things is a privilege, not a burden. Yet we often treat Him as such. Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT
When we praise and seek the Lord God, He turns around and finds us.
If many obstacles in your life are distracting you, making it to difficult to seek the Lord God, what are you to do? Get rid of the junk in your life. There are times we need to take an inventory of our life and clean house. Do you have a junk drawer in your home? That one drawer where you toss every little thing you don’t know what to do with, but might need? Well sometimes we create a “junk drawer” in our minds. A place to dump all those thoughts we may need later. Now it’s time to clean out that junk drawer! So many thoughts, worries, and fears there is no room for the Lord God’s Presence. You will show me the path of life; In Your Presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11
Remember, as the children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, Joshua recounted all that the Lord God had done for them and then asked them to choose who they would serve. “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15
The people chose to serve the Lord God. So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.” Joshua 24:16-18
Then Joshua charged them and made a covenant with them: But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord!”
So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves, to serve Him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses!”
“Now therefore,” he said, “put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.”
And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey!” Joshua 24:19-23
In other words, he told them to make themselves qualified for serving the Lord God. They made a commitment—a covenant—to Him and swore to it as if they were in a court, going before a judge! Seeking the Lord God and His Kingdom is always this way. You cannot keep the idols of your heart and expect to receive the gift of the Lord God’s Presence. Repentance is, therefore, an essential ingredient of seeking and praising Him. When you get rid of all the obstacles, clutter, and noise of your life He will come and you will feel His Presence.
We cannot live with one foot in the world and
one foot in His Presence.
He is calling you to be “All in”!
Remember, your faith in His Word is your greatest asset in the Kingdom.
All scriptures are NKJV unless noted
W.R. Luchie
www.kingdomcitizens.org
This article may only be reproduced, in print or on the internet, if the author's name and website address are included at the end of the article as originally placed. Thank you
