September 3
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
Yesterday we spoke about how Christ and His righteousness, His holiness, His purity, His character, His Spirit, etc. are sometimes or even often not our highest priorities as Christians. If we are honest with ourselves, we will discover that we value earthly things higher than spiritual things a good amount of the time. Some of us even take for granted our salvation in Christ and think lightly of the Holy Spirit living within us. Money, success, influence, power, fame, worldly possessions, and worldly passions take priority
How many Christians today are like this? To what extent are you like this? To what degree do you value earthly things more than the virtues of Christ or even Christ Himself? This is a hard thing for us to come to grips with and be honest with ourselves in the face of Christ. But this is a transformation I believe we must make if we are to make lasting progress against temptation of every kind, especially the temptations of lust and greed. We must be transformed to love Christ and His righteousness, His holiness, His purity, His character, His self-control, His Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit, His eternal life, His people, His agenda, and everything that is important to Christ far more than we love anything else in this world. More than wealth, more than power, more than pleasure, more than anything this world has to offer.
ASSIGNMENT: Honestly examine yourself. Ask the Lord to search your heart and reveal to you any and all loves that are greater than the love of Christ. Ask Him to reveal any and every hypocrisy, any desires that override the desire for Christ and His righteousness. Ask Him to reveal to you any way that you have allowed worldly things to creep in and steal you away from your first love. Ask Him to show you how you have put worldly things and pursuits and selfish interests, even fleshly pleasures, above Him. Ask Him to show you how you are taking Him and His salvation, His Spirit, His eternal life which He has given you for granted. Ask him to show you how you have not valued His holiness and purity, His character and His Spirit, His will and His approval, above all other things. Make a list of the things in your life that you love more than Christ, that you have treasured in your heart more than Christ and His holiness, more than your family, more than others, more than God’s will and God’s ways. Confess your sins to God and ask God to give you a new heart, a new mind, and a new love for Him. Cry out to God to take away these false gods, these idols, these cisterns that cannot hold water. Cry out to God for a transformation from one who is pursuing earthly things and pleasures destined to perish and burn, to one who is earnestly pursuing the things above and the pleasure of Him who called you to His glory and excellence. Ask Him to give you a fresh and abiding humility and appreciation that you know Him and He has given you salvation and eternal life. Ask Him to give you a desire for nothing but Him and His righteousness. Ask Him to fully complete this transformation in you, and don’t stop praying for this daily, as it will probably take time and persistent praying for this transformation to take place.