“. . . seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness . . .”

— Matthew 6:33

Whether or not we’re aware of it, we all have pursuits in life, ultimate goals we want to achieve. Whatever our pursuits are, they drive the rest of our lives. Wittingly or unwittingly, we choose our daily actions to help us reach our ultimate goals. And Jesus Christ told us exactly what we should wholeheartedly pursue first and foremost—God’s kingdom and His righteousness.

If we want to seek God’s kingdom first, we must examine our priorities. As we do, we often find we’re far off the mark. Many people set money making as their primary goal in life. They choose this goal in the most uncritical fashion, without ever asking if they should spend their time, effort, and energy on it. Other people adopt pleasure as their ultimate goal. They want only enough money to enjoy their pleasures. Such people are little different from the ancient pagan hedonists who openly declared pleasure as their god. Yet others spend their lives building their own kingdoms where they can rule over others. They amass as much power as they can so they can have control.

But God asks, “Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.” Jesus continues centuries later, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” Clearly, God wants His kingdom to be our ultimate pursuit in life. What does it mean to seek the kingdom of God? First, we seek the extension of His kingdom by sharing the gospel of Christ with those who don’t know it. Second, it means discipling, teaching, and building up people in the faith. The kingdom should extend until every phase of our lives is under His dominion. Then we will be at peace with Him and ourselves.

Have you evaluated your priorities recently? Have you made seeking God’s kingdom your ultimate pursuit? If not, do so today. Invite God to use you however He desires to draw people to Him.

“Only one life, ’twill soon be past.
Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
C. T. Studd

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.’”

— Genesis 15:1

Today, do you face something that you fear? Then let Abram’s example in Genesis 14 encourage you to endure and to trust God.

Four kings had traveled all the way from the Mesopotamia area and had invaded Israel, taking captive the kings of Zoar, Sodom, Gomorrah, and other cities. In addition, these kings had plundered a lot of the goods belonging to these cities.

When Abram heard that the kings had taken captive his nephew Lot, he gathered together a few hundred menservants, armed them, and took off in pursuit. After traveling some distance, Abram overtook the kings’ forces, freed all the captives, and returned all the goods. Despite his heroic feat, Abram refused to take any reward, saying that he would not have it spread abroad that he had become rich by the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah.

In Genesis 15 we read, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.’” After rescuing the captives, Abram had a great deal to fear. Four kings of good-sized nations were angry with him and could have come to exact retribution from him. But God, stronger and more powerful than those kings (and any tyrant on earth), told Abram not to fear, for God was his shield.

Like Abram, we face many fears—the trials and difficulties that come into our lives, our mortality, evil. This world is full of dangers, and so often we feel fear clutch at our hearts. Yet God comes to us again and again, saying, “Do not be afraid.”

The next time you feel fear creeping in, trust your Father who holds the future. He will bring you victory over every challenge you face.

“The fear of God kills all other fears.”
Hugh Black

“. . . at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

— Ephesians 2:12

Have you ever felt utterly hopeless? Maybe even today you face a struggle that has sapped you of all expectation.

Hope seems a rare commodity these days. Our society has gotten rid of God, banning Him from schools by banning the Bible and prayer and seeking to do so in every other possible area. Meanwhile, the gloom grows deeper and the darkness more impenetrable. Hopelessness settles in about us. In increasing numbers people flee from this world of hopelessness in whatever ways they can—fleeing into a world of drugs, into a world of alcohol, into a world of escapism of some sort. Some even escape their hopelessness in the ultimate way—by committing suicide.

But as Christians, we can have hope based on the objective standard of God’s Word. Through Christ, we’ve been born again unto a living hope. What is that hope? That we shall live in God’s presence forever as His eternal children. When the galaxies have long ago burned out, we shall still live with Christ. When this world gets us down, we have the hope that this life is just the slightest, quickest movement of the shuttle in the eternity which lies before us. Because of that truth, our source of hope will never run dry.

We can have this hope only when we answer God’s call to come to Him and live our lives with and for Him, trusting in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Do you have this hope in the midst of a hopeless world? If you build your hope on anything other than Christ, His blood, and His righteousness, you hope in vain. Trust in the Lord, and you will have a glorious, everlasting hope, one that will carry you from now into eternity.

“There is no medicine like hope.”
O. S. Marden

“All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.”

— Isaiah 47:13, NIV

Have you ever wished you could see into the future and know every detail of the rest of your life? Wouldn’t that knowledge make things easier? It seems that many people today desire that kind of enlightenment. In fact, astrology, one of the most ancient methods of foretelling the future, has become quite popular again. Do you know who helped make it popular? Adolf Hitler. Hitler had five full-time, paid astrologers on his staff, helping him run the Third Reich. But although he had some remarkable successes, his life ended in disaster, burned up in flames.

Astrology holds a strange attraction for humans, and many people don’t see anything wrong with it. But reliance on astrology, a tool of the Devil, can be extremely dangerous. Astrology is harmful because it makes us dependent. It weakens our character by depriving us of the ability to make intelligent, rational choices. Many people find its false power addictive, and if they allow it to take them over, it will destroy their lives. Listen to this story. A man once had an astrologer tell him his future. The astrologer said that this man would marry young, but his first wife would not be the wife who would bring him satisfaction. He would marry again, and this second wife would bring him a lifetime of happiness. This man eventually married a lovely girl who made a delightful wife, but he felt so impressed by the fatalistic claim of the astrologer that he deserted this woman after a year and a half. He divorced his first wife and remarried. But the second wife, supposedly the wife of his dreams, became a fanatical cultist and drove him out of his mind.

A young lady once asked me, “Do you know what my sign is?” I said, “No, what is it?” She said, “My sign is the sign of the cross.” What a wonderful perspective. The cross is the proper sign for all Christians, for we can entrust our future to God because of it. Don’t be afraid if you don’t know all the details of your life, and don’t seek to know them through dubious means such as astrology. Instead, trust God day by day. He has all the answers. And remember that because He has redeemed you, you already know the two most important things about your future: (1) Heaven will be your eternal home, and (2) while you are on earth, God will work all things together for your good.

“Satan doesn’t care if you worship him or the stars,
as long as you turn away from God.”

“. . . and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

— Genesis 1:28

Yesterday we learned that the early Christians “turned the world upside down.” We addressed the need to proclaim the Gospel, which has the potential to change individual lives. Today I want to deal with the social impact of the Gospel.

When you look at the impact of the Church in history, you can see the incredible ways Christianity has transformed the world for the better. Although these changes didn’t happen overnight, we see the Gospel’s influence in abolishing slavery in the United States, bringing about university education, inspiring some of the greatest art in the world, causing hospitals to be built all over the world, and spreading a higher morality the world over. These changes occurred as Christians spread the Gospel to the world around them. These powerful results reflect obedience to what I call “the cultural mandate” that God gave to humankind in Genesis 1—that we should subdue the earth for God’s glory.

God has commissioned us to transform the world. Unfortunately, it’s easy to put our blinders on and ignore the impact of worldwide events. Too many professing Christians have developed a certain pietistic, self-centered view, pursuing only that which makes them feel good rather than the revolution Christ desires.

I thank God for men and women who are genuinely concerned that the gospel of Christ has its application in every realm of the world. What part are you playing in making this dream a reality? Will you join me and the rest of God’s devoted servants as we endeavor to change the world for the better?

“Jesus Christ is ‘the Man who changed the world.’”
Herbert Lockyer

“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”

— Acts 17:6

Do you ever sit back and wonder about your purpose in life? Do you wish to know at the end of your life that you didn’t live in vain? Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. I think it behooves us from time to time to ask, “What in the world am I doing? What is my life really amounting to?”

I believe we should “be about our Father’s business”—advancing the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. What could be more important—and more meaningful?

In the book of Acts, we read that the early Christians were “turning the world upside down.” The world had been turned upon its head in the fall and rebellion of humankind, and it desperately needed to be turned right side up. Though the early Christians faithfully pursued this goal, our world still needs to be turned right side up so that individuals might see God as He really is. Men and women need to turn their eyes from the material mud flats beneath—even if those “flats” are breathtaking mansions on waterfront property—and lift their eyes to the stars and know that God has created humanity for eternal life with Him.

My friends, our world still needs a spiritual revolution that turns the world upside down. But I am afraid that many Christians are like Edith. Edith is described in a certain novel as a small country bounded on the north, the south, the east, and the west by Edith itself. So many of us seem like that country, self-absorbed in our little circumscribed worlds. We don’t pay attention to anything outside our spheres of concern.

Are you a world revolutionary? Have you determined in your heart to change the world, to turn it upside down for Christ? Have you hitched your life to this grand cause? Or are you meandering around in some small eddy out of the main current of human events? If you haven’t already, join in the grand plan to win as many people for Christ as you can. Determine today to touch one life with Christ’s love. This is “what in the world” we should be doing.

“I look upon the world as my parish.”
John Wesley

“But the fruit of the Spirit is . . . self-control . . .”

— Galatians 5:22–23

Here’s a tough question for you: How much self-discipline do you have? Do you make goals for yourself and regularly meet them, or do you find yourself sidetracked by diversions more often than not?

The Scripture says that the one who rules his or her spirit is better than the one who takes a city. Great men and women have always had an extraordinary amount of self-discipline. Stop and consider the discipline it took for William Carey, that great pioneer missionary, to translate the Scriptures into forty or so languages. David Livingstone needed discipline to continue for twenty-nine thousand miles across the continent of Africa, even when the natives begged for time to rest. George Washington led a successful life. Did he owe his success to coincidence? Was it due to being in the right place at the right time? Some might pass it off that way, but if you look more closely, you’ll see that Washington had an amazing amount of self-discipline. He arose promptly at four in the morning. He led a disciplined devotional life. By half past eight in the morning, he had already completed most of the day’s work. He went to sleep early each night. He allowed the Spirit to control his mind.

If we want to accomplish all that God has called us to do, we need to pursue self-discipline. And since we tend to make resolutions for self-discipline at the dawn of each new year, let me suggest one: Watch very little television this year. While some programs are downright anti-Christian in their morality, much of television is simply a waste of time. Recently I heard about a talented Christian speaker and writer. Though he was relatively young, he was writing his forty-first book. One of the keys to his prolific achievements was that he didn’t spend any time watching television. A recent study of many CEOs from Fortune 500 companies found that eighty-one percent of them watch less than one hour of television per day. That’s far less than the average viewer. Think of how much you could accomplish if you acquired this discipline.

Today, ask God to show you how He’d like to develop self-discipline in you. Then allow God to work in your life in whatever way He desires so that you might glorify Him with the fruit of self-control.

“Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
Benjamin Franklin

“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”

— John 17:17,19

If we ever want to enter Heaven, we need to be holy, totally free from sin, absolutely perfect. But, of course, we fall far short of that standard. And so our salvation depends on divine intervention which God has made possible through Christ’s death and resurrection.

Salvation is a three-step process. The first step is justification, which we discussed yesterday. Justification is a one-time act which starts our Christian life. When we give our lives to Christ, He cleanses us through His blood by His grace. He makes us pure, fit for eternity in Heaven. The second step in our salvation is sanctification. Sanctification takes a lifetime as God gradually changes us into the image of His Son. We don’t become divine in any way, but God subdues our fallen nature so that His nature may shine through us. The third and last step in salvation, glorification, doesn’t happen until we are finally in Heaven. God will completely set us free from all sin and imperfection, and we will finally realize our true selves. We will be glorified, exactly the way God meant us to be—holy, perfect, and acceptable to Him.

But until we reach Heaven, we must allow God to sanctify us in preparation for eternity with Him. To sanctify means “to cleanse, to set apart from sin, to make holy.” Sanctification comes about as we draw closer to Christ. As the branches are linked to the vine, so we are linked to Jesus Christ through His Word, the sacraments, prayer, and worship. As we apply these disciplines, we appropriate more of His grace and His fruit becomes evident in our lives. This process requires partnership between us and God. Sanctification, on the one hand, is God’s work, as all of salvation is; on the other hand, we run the race, press on toward the goal, struggle against sin, and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

So today and every day, draw near to God. Spend time with Him. Reach out in faith to Him. And you will come to know the blessing of God’s holiness and the meaning of His sanctification.

“Awake my soul, stretch every nerve, and press with vigor on.
A heav’nly race demands thy zeal, and an immortal crown.”
Philip Doddridge

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

— Romans 3:28

The most crucial question anyone could ever ask is: “How can I be right with God?” We all need to know how we—sinful human beings—can ever secure right relationships with a holy, sin-hating God.

Do you want to know the answer? Here it is: You and I can gain right relationships with God through justification by faith.

Justification by faith is one of the central doctrines of Christianity. But what does it mean? Justification is a judicial term. If an accused person goes before the bar of justice, the judge can only justify that person if the judge or jury finds the person innocent. If a judge or jury finds the accused guilty, the judge may condemn that person, sending him or her to prison. A governor or king may pardon the prisoner, but even so, the person is still a pardoned criminal, and that is vastly different from being justified. To be justified is to be made “just as if I’d never sinned.” No human judge can ever proclaim that, but God can. When we repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone for our salvation, the miracle of justification takes place.

How well I remember that day when I first discovered the truth about myself. I went before the bar of God’s judgment. Justice accused me, and the scales tipped against me. The Judge looked me sternly in the face and said, “I pronounce that you shall die. Do you have anything to say for yourself?” For the first time in all my self-righteous life, I was speechless. The Judge brought down his gavel and pronounced the sentence: eternal death.

But as death descended upon me, Jesus suddenly intervened, declaring, “Surely he deserves to die, but the spear pierced My side instead. I went to Hell for him so he wouldn’t have to. Now let him go free.” That day, Christ transformed my life, and I have not been the same since.

Have you been justified by faith? Jesus has already served your sentence, and He waits for you to turn to Him, trusting Him with your life. Because He died in your place, your slate can be clean. If you haven’t already, make today the day you accept His free gift of eternal life.

“All of the religions of this world are simply good advice.
Only Christianity is good news.”

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time . . .”

— 1 Peter 5:6

Pride, says the Bible, goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Pride lays at the root of Adam and Eve’s downfall and thus of our own. It threatens our families, our friendships, even our salvation. Pride has become entrenched in our human nature; we think we can make it through life on our own power.

Yet everything we have comes from God. Ask yourself the question Paul asked the Corinthian Christians: What do you have that you did not receive? God is the source of everything. Thus, none of us has reason to be proud.

So how can we acquire humility? We begin by putting ourselves into proper perspective, seeing ourselves in relationship to God. When we look to God, we grasp our unworthiness. Yet humility doesn’t come from abasing ourselves. It comes from glorifying God, seeing Him as the source of all we are and all we have. In His love, God accepts us unconditionally and lifts us to higher ground. He shows us that we are His children, made in His image, adopted into His family as sons and daughters of a glorious and victorious King.

Another antidote to pride is gratitude. Whenever we accomplish anything in life, we can choose to be proud or grateful. As we realize that we accomplish nothing without God, we must choose gratitude, giving the glory to Him for all He does for us.

We can’t have prideful hearts and maintain a right relationship with God. God doesn’t need our accomplishments, nor is He interested in our vainglory. He wants us. Christ wants us to cultivate humble hearts that bow before His grace and His cross—the ultimate example of humility.

Today view yourself in relationship with God and thank Him for all He has accomplished in your life. Lay your achievements at His feet, blessing Him for His goodness to you.

“It was through pride that the devil became the devil.”
C. S. Lewis