The Kingdom Of God will be first in my life than anything else

From: December 18-24, 2007

Pastor: Edith Cruz

Study: # 521

TOPIC: “The Kingdom Of God will be first in my life than anything else” Mathew 6:25-34 The Kingdom of God should be first in our lives than any other thing! As the years go by many neglect the truth of the gospel and accommodate the Word as they please, they add or remove at their convenience or their benefit and the passion and the conviction that they had are conditioned. God’s people should have and conserve the truth that has been established. Sometimes, having the possibility to use wisdom they destroy the truth. We should not allow the truth that we have learned fade away as the years go by instead of increasing and perfecting our lives. The more faith we have in what God has established, the more we will reach. When we listen to the Word as it is, faith is produced. The devil doesn't want us to listen to God’s Word because the more we listen to it the more we will grow in faith and he knows that he will lose. If we have decided to serve the Lord we should put our trust in Him. When difficulties arise, we sometimes lose faith. The more we grow in faith, more we will trust in Him and we will discard the anxiety that takes us out of the process of the faith. Anxiety comes on behalf of the devil so that the process of the faith will end in our lives. We sometimes want to work things out by ourselves and we are filled with anxiety. This becomes our worst enemy because it disturbs us so that we will not believe. If we don't believe, then, how is God going to move? Because He moves according to how much we believe him. If there is something that we should have it is an unshakable trust in God at all times. We cannot serve riches. Sometimes when everything is well we serve the Lord, if we have everything, then, how do we depend on God? Humans have the tendency of centering their lives towards food, clothes, everything that surrounds them, and the true feeling of life is lost. Sometimes, what we possess is what measures us before others. One lives ambiguously. Jesus explains in this biblical passage what the true meaning of life is. So it is a mistake to worry excessively about what we will eat and we will dress in 10 years from now. We cannot project ourselves toward what we will possess at a certain time, because then we become anxious and fall under pressure. We will live worried about the years to come and we won't give life the true meaning it has, as our Master has given to us. The concerns about the future will become a sin, because we refuse wisdom, the power and the love of God. We reject God’s love as we imply that He doesn't take care of us and that He doesn't love us. With this attitude we underestimate God’s love, His care and His wisdom. It is to deny God and tell Him that He doesn't know what He is doing and that He is not able to provide for our needs; it is to underestimate Him. Our concerns drive us to dedicate our energy to look for other ways of how to live. God is committed to support us. Some have wasted their lives and they have lost the main purpose for which we have been created. We sometimes focus on what is contrary to God’s plan and at the end will not do well to our lives. We become eager and we lose the real purpose of God in our lives. When our worries are constant, we become anxious. Jesus forbids His people to live in a tormented anxiety that only disturbs their joy, their peace of spirit, their repairing rest and doesn’t let them enjoy God’s blessings. Anxiety turns into torment. We must not live anxiously for our lives. Let us take advantage of the blessing that God gives us each moment. God has given us these bodies and they need to depend on Him the seven days of the week. Our peace and joy comes from God and not from our circumstances. We have received a body to become our servant and not our owner. If we allow our

body to dominate us it will destroy us. The life that God has given us is the most important thing of everything that surrounds us. There is no need for us to be filled with anxiety. The birds are always singing and building their nests, and God takes care of them. Then, it is not necessary for us to be anxious! God will take care of us. People pile up resources for an unpredictable future. We must not live this way, always worried. God wants to increase our trust more in Him. The animals were created for our service, how much more we have been created to serve our Creator! He will feed us without any preoccupation; He will support us. We cannot add to our height. Because of our incapacity for many things we need God’s blessings. We sometimes live in anxiety, but we need of God’s blessings. We cannot prolong our life as we please. Then, our anxiety toward the future is a dishonor and an offense to God. We sometimes live full with concerns and anxiety because we don't know how to live the present day. We must know the Word. We must enjoy life. Knowing how the lilies of the fields have been created and how beautiful they are should be another reason to feed our faith. These only emerge for one day, they are dressed with beauty, with their colors and texture, size and when they die they are used to burn in a fire. The God that takes care of the lilies takes care of us. Let us not seek so much for the future but for what we need today. The future corresponds to God. The unbeliever lives for the accumulation of wealth. Let us live for today, for this moment, because we don't know what will happen tomorrow. The concerns are essentially lack of trust towards God. Preoccupations are a characteristic of the pagans, not of us. Some plan to be secure by the amount of money that they have saved, but they will never be satisfied. We will never be secure of the future because it is uncertain. To be able to defeat anxiety and the preoccupations we must concentrate on doing God’s will. Because the rest will be added by God and our blessings will come, not because of our vanity or by our efforts. As God takes care of the grass and of the birds, He will take care of us when we seek His Kingdom and His justice. Our goal is to go to Heaven and in order to go there we must love and live in sanctity. God is committed to take care of us so that we won’t lack the essential things of life. To seek His justice and live in sanctity is so that we will not be destroyed, because we must give Him what He demands. We sometimes live accumulating for the bad days, but let us struggle to seek the Kingdom of God. We must not worry for tomorrow; we must learn how to live with the demands each day as they come. We must live today; take advantage of the doors that God has already opened for us. He will take care of us and of our loved ones. Amen.