The new year started. You have focused on your spiritual growth. The first month of the year is almost over and you have done well.
You have been going to church every Sunday, doing your Bible study, and saying your prayers every morning.
It seems everything is going right. You are on track.
But as you get further into the year, competing goals begin to surface.
- Your kids are back in school. School activities are ramping up. You like nothing more than to see you kids excel. You want your son to be a starter on the team. Your daughter has an incredible talent. You’ll do anything to set them up for success.
- Your employer has established the annual goals this year, including your job performance. This year, if you play your cards right, there is a promotion in store. All you have to do is create the products, boost sales, and start integrating into the leadership meetings. There will be a few weekend events also.
- Your favorite sports team’s schedule has come out. You are in luck. Many of the games fit right into your life schedule. It just so happens that the games are on the weekends your children’s activities are on a break. Super. This year you get to go.
- Your spouse’s work schedule has also opened. You see an opportunity for a few road trips this year. You and your spouse chuckle as you realize you get to do a cruise this year, without the children! Ha! Thank goodness grandma lives close by.
- The new season for your favorite episode starts in February also. You and your friends have a plan to binge watch the last two seasons prior to the new one coming out. It is so much fun talking with your friends about the show.
- And of course, let’s not forget, Christmas dinner and New Year’s finger foods have reappeared. This time, on your waistline. Your doctor says you have to do something or your health will suffer. The good news is a new fitness center has opened up right down the street and they are running a grand opening special. A few of your work mates have already registered.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, there is a problem. You want it all. You want your kids to excel. You want the promotion. You want to see your team play live. You want to take the cruise. You want to watch the new series. You want to lose those extra 10, 20, or even 30 pounds. You want it all.
Further, these are just big ticket items. We have not even mentioned the little things that pop up that you want also.
Now, here is the deal: There is nothing wrong with these things. They are not necessarily sinful. Ok, maybe you ate a bit more than you should. But sinful? There is nothing wrong with any of them.
So, how can these things be a problem?
They become a problem when they prevent you from having the faith that you want. It’s more than priorities also. Poor priorities can affect your faith also. We talked about that in Part 4 of this series. This is about wants. At some point you have to decide what you want.
Jesus taught that you can’t serve God and mammon. You have to choose. There is no two ways about it. You must decide if you really want to grow in your faith.
Now, this does not mean you can’t enjoy the wants in your life. You can. However, you must determine how, and if, you can still grow in your faith while doing them.
Most people will go all in with their wants at the expense of their faith. You, on the other hand, will go all in with your faith and let it influence your wants.
We build our priorities around our wants. It is quite impossible to have priorities if you don’t know what it is you want in the first place. Before you can know how to order your calendar, you must know what it is that you want most.
As a Christian, your number one want must be God. As Jesus taught, you must seek the kingdom of God first, before all other things.
There is a neat little phrase Jesus said in this same teaching about seeking the Kingdom of God that I find interesting. It is often overlooked or not addressed. Jesus said if you seek the Kingdom all these things will be added unto you.
Jesus had, of course, been talking about food and clothing. But let’s imagine a few things here that might allow you to seek the Kingdom while you do the things you want.
- Instead of just going to the gym to get your sweat on, what about inviting your Christian friends to go with you, work out, and then pray for each other as you depart. Or you could make it a habit to tell at least one person in the gym about Christ. Or invite one person to church. You could go with the goal of practicing relational evangelism.
- Instead of just watching the new season, or binge watching the old one, how about watching it with an eye to God, looking for themes of sin, righteousness, holiness, mercy. Then, rather than just talking about the gushy stuff with your friends, discuss those themes.
- Take the cruise, but see yourself on a missionary journey, taking every opportunity you can to tell the people you meet about the church you attend or how you see God working in your life. If you are vacationing, you should have time to do a bit more Bible study and prayer also. Christian cruises are a thing now-a-days also.
- Rather than taking your kids to their events and sitting in your car surfing social media, get to know the other parents. Who knows? You might can form a Bible study group in the bleachers.
The thing with seeking the Kingdom of God is that it doesn’t mean you have to isolate yourself and not do anything else you want. It does mean learning how to seek the Kingdom as you do the things you want.
All too often we attempt to separate faith from life. Jesus never taught to do that. If anything, Jesus demonstrated to us how to live our faith in life.
Jesus did send us into the world. The challenge is allowing our faith to influence the world we live in as we do the things we want. Interestingly, when faith becomes our greatest want, our other wants take on a different meaning.
