Hope Fellowship Blog

Waiting and Working: Seeking First His Kingdom

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In Luke 19, Jesus tells a parable about a nobleman who went away and returned as King to see what his servants had done with the riches he entrusted them. Jesus’s point in telling the parable can be boiled down: “We are servants, entrusted with the treasure of the gospel, and must be faithful in the business of the kingdom while we wait for Jesus’s return.”
This should get you thinking about how you might spend yourself, however many years you have left, for the glory of God. Dreaming big dreams and praying big prayers of how God will use you. In short, I want you to believe God will use you to bring glory to himself through how you live out your faith until he returns.
But what does this look like? Let’s look back at Luke chapters 9–18.

We should be about the business of seeking first the kingdom.
In Luke 12:22, Jesus is reminding us of our value to him, so much more than other things of creation. He provides for those other things, so why are we anxious about those things that we can’t ultimately control? Jesus concludes Luke 12 with the call, “Seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”
What does it mean to seek his kingdom? It doesn’t mean to look for something that is hard to find. It means to spend energy and time focusing on that which is of most value and of ultimate reality. It means to spend our time thinking about and looking for that which will honor the king.
In Luke 12:35, Jesus said to his disciples, “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast.”
One of Satan’s greatest tactics is to distract us from what is most important, and make us think there will always be enough time. The temptation to distractions didn’t just arrive in the 21st century with the smartphone, or Netflix, or any other technology driven aspect of our society. Christians of all ages have been tempted to distraction from the primary business of seeking Christ first.
Tony Reinke said, “True distractions include anything (even a good thing) that veils our spiritual eyes from the shortness of time and from the urgency of the season of heightened expectation as we await the summing up of all history.”
God wants each of us to begin each day knowing it might be our last. And in that day, we breathe in and out praises to him because we know our lives belong to him and we are saved and given new life through Christ.
The call: Seek first his Kingdom.
The cost: The comfort of distraction.
The question: What distracts me from sobered thinking about eternal realities?
The prayer: “Lord, would you help me be alert today to be prepared for the good works you have prepared for me (Eph 2:10)?”

Let’s wait for Jesus return by being devoted to good works together.

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