Teach us to Pray, part 28: Your Kingdom Come

And He said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. 'Give us each day our daily bread. 'And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.'" (Luke 11:2-4 NASB)

We turn now to the phrase "Thy Kingdom come". There are so many aspects to this phrase that it will take a few days to get through them all, but, for today, we are looking at the longing we should have for the kingdom of God to come. This was not the first, nor the only, time that that Jesus mentioned God's Kingdom coming. In Matthew (Sermon on the Mount), Jesus taught that our top priority should be seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. 

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33 NASB)

"Seek first" indicates top priority to my seeking. This seeking is not only to be for His kingdom but also for His righteousness. I should not be looking simply for my idea of heaven on earth. I should be actively, and eagerly, with first priority, seeking righteousness. 

The word translated as "righteousness" is dikaiosynē and is one of the attributes of God, indicating His faithfulness and truthfulness. It speaks of God's absolute abhorrence of sin and the commitment to dealing with sin that lead Him to sacrifice Himself on the cross for us. 

For me to seek righteousness, then, requires that I see Sin in the same way God does. It requires that I acknowledge the price of my Sin and the death that it required. If I am seeking righteousness, I will be moving toward the point of abhorring my own sin and desiring to be done with it. 

Seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is not compatible with the casual attitude toward Sin that is so prevalent today. I cannot claim Grace as an excuse for my sin. Yes, there is Grace to cover our failures, but I must not be needlessly extravagant with that which was bought at such a horrific price. The Grace that God so generously supplies (giving me what I do not deserve) is to be treasured and handled with the care it deserves. 

Seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness requires that I seek the integrity, purity, and virtue of God and allow that integrity to direct both my actions and my thoughts. In asking God that His Kingdom come, I am asking that it come first in me. 

For today, join me in seeking His Kingdom, asking God that His Kingdom, His righteousness, His integrity comes first in us, cleansing us from all our unrighteousness and fitting us for His Kingdom.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus, but cleanse us, Your people, before You do.

Lessons from the Battlefield, part 15: struggle spots

The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD. Now many people were gathered at Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very large assembly. They arose and removed the altars which were in Jerusalem; they also removed all the incense altars and cast them into the brook Kidron. (2 Chronicles 30:12-14 NASB)

 

The hand of God was on the people to obey.  As they gathered for the Passover, even before the feast began, they collectively began to cast away the altars on which they had worshipped idols.  Don’t misunderstand this principle.  Cleansing requires more than just confession.  They did not just confess that they had idols; they removed them from their land and destroyed them.

What are the places of idolatry in your life?  What are the things with which you struggle over and over again?  What are the areas in which true, lasting victory seems elusive?  Are you tired of dealing with the mess in your heart?  Are you sick of the distraction of sin (either wrong attitudes or wrong actions) that prevents you from truly worshipping with a whole heart?If so, today is a perfect day to do more than repent.  Ask our Lord to help you cast away that sin that has beset you so long and remove it completely from your life.  ​

Every Christian has some area or “struggle spot” that is a difficult one for them.  None of us are spared.  Even our Lord was tempted.  Victory comes only when we willingly allow our Lord to work in us to bring cleansing and lasting victory to our "struggle spots".  

Maggie's Turn: Maggie Needs A Bath

I am Maggie the Wonder Dog and I do not like time out! I do not like it at all! I do not know what my mama is saying, but here's what happened. My mama said, "Let's go for a walk!" Wonder Dogs LOVE going for walks, so we headed out. My mama didn't make me go on a leash, and that is good, because Wonder Dogs LOVE no-leash walks! I ran and ran and ran. It felt so good for the wind to blow through my fur! 

When we came back, Mama and Bill the Magnificent started working on the waterer for the cows. Those cows were getting in the way, so I told them to move, but they didn't want to move at all. They just wanted a drink of water. It was a lot of work, but I ran round and round and finally got them out of the way. I can't help it if I got a little dirty. Those ole cows were standing in the mud!  

My mama looked at me and she did not even tell me thank you for helping with the cows! She did not! She said, "Maggie, you are not going inside without getting a bath!" She knows that I do not like getting a bath, but she would not give up. 

My mama told me that when you get dirty, you are supposed to let your mama clean you up. She said that is what humans in her breed, the Christians, do. I asked her, "Do you have a Christian-bather?"  She laughed. She laughs a lot. She said, "No, dear one, Christians get their souls dirty when they do wrong things and we have to ask God to clean our hearts!" Wonder Dogs do not know much about souls. They don't teach that in Beginners Obedience School, but I hope I don't ever have to get my soul scrubbed. It's bad enough getting my fur scrubbed! My mama said, "Oh, soul-scrubs are just wonderful! You wouldn't mind it a bit because you would feel so much better!" I didn't say it because I would get in trouble, but I thought, "Hah! I don't want any scrubbing at all!"

My mama had scrubbing on her mind, though, and she would not give up! She wouldn't let me in the door with mud on, even though I had worked so hard. I barked and barked. "Let me in without a bath!" I barked, but my mama would not! I barked it so long that my mama got mad at me. She said,"It is too late for a bath, young lady! You are going to time out tonight and getting a scrubbing in the morning!" She was not laughing any more! She was not kidding, either! She would not even let me snuggle on the end of her bed. I was so sad. It didn't even help when I whimpered. My mama said,"I prefer obedience to whiny whimpering!" And she meant it!

I had to stay in timeout by myself all night! It was awful! This morning I had to get a bath anyway! My mama said you could tell how dirty I was because I turned the tub brown. I don't think I did, but that's what she said! Anyway, I finally got to snuggle after my bath and I was so glad! She was right after all! It really is better to be clean. 

Here's the Wonder Dog lesson of the day:

Just obey!

Get clean quick!

You will get lots more snuggles that way!

The end. By Maggie the Wonder Dog. 

Burning the Trash (Luke 3:17)

"...He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.” (Luke 3:17 MSG)

NASB translates this by saying Jesus has a winnowing fork in his hand and he will gather the wheat and burn the chaff with an unquenchable fire. 

The Holy Spirit comes into our heart when we allow Him to ignite the fire in our hearts, but John wants us to understand something important. Holy Spirit's job is not to tend the fire. We tend the fire by staying close to our Lord. Our obedience and surrender tends the fire. 

The Holy Spirit gets busy with housecleaning. He wants to keep all that is good (the wheat), but whatever is not good goes straight to the fire. Wikipedia defines chaff as "the dry, scaly protective casings of the seeds of cereal grain..." It's inedible and keeps us from the "good stuff", the nourishing grain inside. Why would we want to hang on to chaff? It's just the waste part. It's wheat trash. How silly we are to argue with The Lord about keeping such useless garbage. But, we do. 

Holy Spirit is no dummy. He knows that, given our druthers, we would try to keep the wheat AND the chaff. Sometimes we are even foolish enough to try to keep the chaff at the expense of the wheat. He has a great solution for that - FIRE. He just burns it up.

Here is the really amazing thing that occurs to me for the first time - maybe the unquenchable fire with which the Holy Spirit has baptized us, the fire of His love in our hearts, is the very fire that burns up our chaff (so we can't get it back) and leaves the wheat. 

How great is that? God is determined to cleanse us and He does it with the powerful fire of His love! Wow! Heart cleanup doesn't seem nearly so scary when we look at it like that, does it?

Well, that brings us to our own chaff. I had a little chaff burning yesterday, and will need some more chaff burned today. I have the worst problem with chaff, but praise God He can handle it! Better yet, He prefers to do a daily clean up rather than handle a mountainous mess at once. He keeps our hearts clean and usable that way. 

Take a look at your life, your heart. What chaff are you storing? What needs to go? Today, invite the Spirit to pile all your chaff on the fire of His love. Just imagine the blaze it will make. The good news is this: burning chaff makes the nicest blaze, and it warms you all the way through!

Today, pray that we and our loved ones will recognize the chaff our Lord sees and will invite Him to cleanse us with His love.