ICS Daily Devotions
Seek Him and His Kingdom
Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
The Kingdom of God has come into our midst after the finished work of Jesus Christ. Because He has made available His nature in the new creation, we can escape the corruption that is in the world. As God is love, we can love our neighbours as we love ourselves. God walks with us and He uses us to reach out to the people whom He loves through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness because we are faith-filled people. We please God as we walk in faith through the new creation realities that belong to us. It helps us to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible tells us that eternal life is knowing God, much like knowing a friend. We will know their likes and dislikes, ways of doing things, choices, character, and personality. However, while we might disagree with a friend over certain matters, we need to choose to agree with everything that comes from God because He is supreme and omniscient. He knows everything, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways are higher than ours. Because He can look at our lives from the beginning to the end, we need to have complete trust in Him and believe that He is God so we can place our faith in Him! It is knowing what He has given to us through the new creation realities and living by faith in what He has given us that we can be not of the world though we live in the world.
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV) But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Diligently seeking Him in the above Scripture means a persistent effort to take time to seek the face of God whenever we feel that He has a new role for our lives, or a conscientious effort to draw away from the crowd to seek after Him. We will give full attention to what He is leading us to do. It is a deep passionate love and pursuit of God because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross; it is wanting to live for Him, serve and worship Him wholeheartedly. In fact, it is a normal response towards God who loves us so much despite all our shortcomings. When we yield to His plan, calling and purpose, we are walking in step with Him, and we are in faith.
Sermon Series: What Pleases God (Part 3)
