God gave me a new thought this morning when He said, “When you think poor, think blessed.” When it appears that our prayers are not being answered, it is natural to think that we are not blessed. But we do not realize that we are already blessed.
When we interact with the people in our world, we can become worldly minded too. We can be tempted to think in the ways of man and get too caught up in the reality of what we see before us. But God doesn’t want us to live in this way. He wants us to consider his Kingdom and its reality much more closely than the physical world around us.
Much of the word of God focuses on setting our minds on heavenly things, not on earthly things (Col 3:2). You may think, “How can I live without thinking about the mundane affairs of life? We cannot get away from people who are not like us, can we? If all was perfect, I could do all the things God wants me to do.” But the real test in our lives is, “Can we obey God even when it is not easy to obey Him? Do we trust His wisdom for our lives? Do we read the Word and go back to doing what we have always done?”
Let us consider some of the loving commands of the Lord:
- “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Mat 6:33)
- “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil 3:20)
- “Do not store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Mat 6:20)
- “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)
God wants us to deliberate on these profound truths until we receive clarity on why doing these commands will help us live victoriously. In fact our authority level will change when we remember that we are seated with Him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6). He desires that we look to Him for all our needs. He is a loving Father who tells us constantly and reminds us every second of His everlasting presence in our lives. We read:
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.”
— Psalm 19:1-2
He teaches us that He knows exactly how many hairs are on our head at any point of time. (“Why even the hairs on your head are all numbered.” — Luke 12:7)
Imagine finding one strand of hair on your pillow. Does it grip your attention? You just ignore it and are not concerned about it. But not God. He is so mindful of you that He even notices that you have lost one strand of hair. And then He makes a note in His memory that the new count of hair strands on your head is less by 1. How amazing is our God who does exactly as He speaks! He is not a God of double standards: when He says that He knows exactly how many strands of hair we have on our heads, He actually means it. Everything in the Word of God is written for our edification. We get to know this God as we live with Him daily, experiencing His goodness, His mercy and His kindness in our lives.
So every time you are tempted to think about how everyone else is more blessed than you are, consider instead how wonderfully blessed you are in having a loving Father who takes care of the minutest details of your life. He is deeply engaged with us even when we are not mindful of it.
Jesus always did what He saw the Father doing. He knew for sure that God his Father was protecting him at all times. Not one moment in his life did he feel that he had lost his Father’s protection except on the cross when the sin of entire humanity prevented him from experiencing the love of the Father. We must not take the things of God lightly but meditate on them constantly in order to derive the most out of it.
When we do this, we find our peace is greater and our understanding more sound, so that we have lost some of our fearful ways and have become more stable and poised to do life. The more focus we give to the things of God, the more profound our understanding becomes and the deeper our peace within. Remember how Jesus said that He gives us peace like no one else can. How does He give us His peace? The peace that only Jesus can give us is found in reading and abiding in His Word. Jesus gives us His peace through the word of God. His peace is beyond understanding and everlasting because no one can take it away from us.
I hope that this message has helped you understand that it is only through experiencing God at an even more intimate level that you can stay away from the constant distractions and the negativity that plagues your life.
Start your day with prayer whenever possible. Stop contemplating all the issues that make your life difficult or impossible. Be merry and cheerful considering always your closeness with God the Father. Be grateful for all the blessings that He has showered you with. Change your focus from the temporal to the eternal. Let your heart be saturated with the love of Christ. And remember always to give thanks and glorify the King Of Kings and Lord Of Lords. Amen.