“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Psalm 42:1-2
The other thing this study pointed out is that there is an
“order” to things. First and foremost; “Who Christ is.” Second is “The work
that he has done” and then third, “What I must do.” The scripture reference is
Colossians 1:3-23. I will summarize this scripture in the correct order for
perspective;
He is; The image of the invisible
God, the first born of all creation. By Him all things were created… He is
before all things and in Him all things consist. He is the head of the body,
the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things
He may have the preeminence (verses 15-18)
He has; Qualified us to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the
power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the son of his love, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. He has
reconciled all things to himself, making peace through his blood shed on the
cross. (verses 12-14, 20-22)
We must; Not cease to pray and ask
that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding. That I may be worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God… Giving
thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of
the saints in the light. I must continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast
and not moved away from the hope of the gospel. (verses 9-12, 23)
If we get any of these things out of order we will be out of
balance! If we focus on what he has done first, it won’t have the same impact
if we don’t really know who He is. If we focus on what we must “do” first,
without knowing who He is, our work for him will not produce the desired fruit,
if any fruit at all. He MUST always come first, then we have a greater
understanding of what He has done and what we must do for Him will come as
natural as breathing. The “must” isn’t an order from God but rather a natural
result from KNOWING Him! It is a desire, or healthy compulsion, to serve Him because
we truly know and LOVE Him and the result is that we want to do His will, and
surrender everything we can for him. I would like to bring up some familiar
scriptures and see if we can look at them in a different way today, and maybe
see them from a different perspective.
"Ask
and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and
the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who
seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you,
if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a
fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven
give good gifts to those who ask him!" Matthew 7:7-11
Over the years of my
journey to know God, he has given me some wonderful insights and one of them is
that He is all about the "Eternal" perspective, more so
than the temporal. Because, as he says, this life is just a blink of an eye,
here today and gone tomorrow. Even though we may feel like the “here and now”
is lasting FOREVER, right? LOL! But it really isn’t, the older I get,
the more apparent this is! What seems to matter most to God is what is ETERNAL
and not temporal. The above Matthew scripture is just one example, and this
will help me get to the purpose of this blog: When we read scriptures like
this, what do we think of asking, seeking, and knocking for? (Side note; I am
focusing mostly on Asking and Seeking in this blog, I will get into the knocking
part in another blog).
Let's look at another scripture; in this Luke scripture He
is saying that if we seek HIM first, our food and clothing, and
basic necessities will be taken care of (the very things I was asking for
before! DOH!). Also, I believe the "Life" He is referring to
here is "eternal life"... "Life is more than food, and the body more than
clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no
storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than
birds! … And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not
worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and
your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and
these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little
flock,." Luke
12:23-34
This is a great
scripture to teach us about not worrying, but honestly now I am seeing it as an
entreaty to not worry about the temporal things in life but instead SEEK
HIM and HIS Kingdom first and when we DO, all the other things in life
will be taken care of. He says the “pagan world” runs after these things… The
Godless ones, the ones who don’t have Him. Since we DO have Him, we can trust
Him to take care of these basic, temporal, needs. Remember the example of the
“order” of things? You are probably thinking; DUH, Linda, are you just now
getting this!? Well, yes and no. I think I have known but my understanding is
going deeper into the question of, What AM I asking, seeking, and knocking
for?? If not the temporal things in life, what DOES He want me to ask for? If I
ask for bread, wouldn't He rather give me the Bread of LIFE, Jesus himself, and
the Living Water of the Holy Spirit, and then trust him to give me the regular
bread without asking for it!? “Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God
and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would
have given you living water." John 4:10 He says, I feed the
birds of the air and clothe the grass of the fields, how much more valuable are
YOU!? I know you need these things, but instead, seek and ask for ME, the rest
is already taken care of before time began!
"Again,
I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it
will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come
together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:19-20
In Mark 11:21-24 Jesus cursed the fig tree and it died and
He said “Have
faith in God,
Jesus answered... and do not doubt” What are we to have faith in?
And what are we not to doubt?? Jesus says God himself! This takes us back
to the order of things, having faith in God first and do not doubt Him!
He says plainly that we can do the same things that HE does, but maybe we
are missing the most crucial first step!! Who did Jesus always acknowledge
first and dedicate His life to... Whose WILL did Jesus always do? Who did He always
surrender to? He came to do HIS FATHER’S will and not his own! He was always
in the presence of God and surrendered to God’s will in everything, even in His
death. What are we asking for and seeking? Our will or God's? “Father, if you are willing, take
this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42
In John 14:11 He says “You may ask me for anything in my name,
and I will do it." This is another great scripture to dissect a bit more.
He says He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, this implies an
intimate knowledge of God, the first crucial step. Then, the Son
is bringing glory to the Father. In what way is he bringing glory to the
Father? Is it temporal or eternal? And, IN HIS NAME, we can do the same
things. What does that really mean anyway, to do things in His name? Do we just
say his name to put the stamp or seal of approval on our requests? Maybe? But
what if, in His name means that we are just like HIM, the image of Christ, in
that we are in the Father and the Father is in us, that we know the Father as
He did, and we seek to bring Glory to the Father in all our requests? What are
we asking, seeking, and knocking for? “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3
"If
you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it
will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much
fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." John
15:7-8
"You
did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear
fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you
whatever you ask in my name." John 15:16
John 15 says a
couple of times that the Father will give us whatever we ask, but again, there
is a caveat and an order to both of these statements. He says the first step is
that I remain in HIM, THEN He will remain in me, THEN I can ask
whatever I wish and it will be given to me. THEN you will bear much
fruit. The key part of this scripture being that I am REMAINING in an eternal
God and bearing much [eternal] fruit, glorifying God and showing myself to be
His disciple. Then in the next scripture he says we will bear fruit that will
last. So first, remain in Him, second bear fruit that will last, thirdly the
father will give you what you ask in His name. Notice the order of things.
Hang in there with me, I only have a couple more scriptures
to go, I feel like this is so important I can’t say it enough! It is like I
must reformat my own hard drive and I need all the help I can get, lol!!
"The
kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he
hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that
field.” Matthew 13:44 In this scripture a man found a treasure that
was of great worth. What was this treasure?? He refers to the Kingdom of Heaven
and is describing what it is like... so it must be an eternal “Kingdom” treasure?
Could it be God Himself? Is God that treasure to us and is He worth so much to
us that we would sell everything we have to have HIM? Wow. Very good question! This
reminds me of the scripture of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking
him what good thing must he do to have eternal life and Jesus said to him "If you want to be perfect,
go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in
heaven. Then come, follow me." Matthew 19:20-21 He told the young man
that he needed to let go of the temporal riches and trade those in for eternal
(heavenly) treasure, maybe Christ himself? THEN he could follow Him. But the
young man had quite the conundrum. He had to make a very hard choice but
apparently, he desired the temporal riches over what Jesus was offering and he went
away very sad, because he had great wealth and he didn't want to let it go.
The second part of that scripture is similar except it was a
pearl of great value that the man sold everything he had to buy it. Again, I
think we are being asked if Christ is our pearl? Are we willing to sell
everything to gain Christ? “Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found
one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought
it." Matthew 13:45
So again, what am I asking, seeking, and knocking for? Okay,
hopefully I have made some sense here and helped you to see these scriptures a
little differently. I know I do!!
“For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Luke 12:34
Father, I may not be where I need to be or truly where I want
to be, desiring YOU and You alone, but that is my hearts desire, my goal
and my journey is to know YOU and YOU alone. My flesh may fail, but my spirit
recognizes my need for you in a much greater way! Please help me get to there!
I want to sell everything I have for the treasure and pearl of great wealth and
value, eternal wealth, that only YOU can provide. I know that only You can
satisfy my deepest longings. May my hunger and thirst for you overshadow
anything else this world can offer me and may YOU alone be my delight, my
treasure and my pearl!
I listed this scripture at the beginning, does it have a
different significance to you now?
“As
the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul
thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Psalm 42:1-2
