In Matt 6:25-34, Jesus is saying we shouldn’t even waste our time worrying about supplying ourselves with food, water and clothes. In other words, He’s calling us to abandon our concern for even the most seemingly necessary worries in our life for the sake of pursuing first, “his kingdom and his righteousness”.

But let’s be honest, much of our worry is over things far more trivial in comparison to our most vital needs. Most of us don’t know what it’s like to worry whether we’ll receive basic provisions each day. The majority of our worry stems from trying to secure our comforts. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the line between needs and entitlements has become blurred in our culture, and we have come to pursue both with the same level of persistence.

I think this is one of the primary reasons many of us have become focused more on what’s ahead rather than what God has for us in this present moment. It’s our desperate attempt to ensure we won’t ever be left without the things we feel entitled to have or experience in this life. Those things we THINK we need.

Only once we acknowledge God as our sole source of provision can we enjoy the freedom of knowing that what is, and will become ours, is from Him, and not the product of our selfish ambition.

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Our incessant worry over our future is just as much in part due to a false perspective of ourselves as it is a false perspective of God. In general, I don’t think people struggle with trusting whether or not God is capable of providing us with what’s in HIS best interest. We just aren’t always sure whether we want what’s in His best interest more than what’s in our own.

The reality is, it’s a matter of us being so unaware that God’s love is far more sufficient than the love we have for ourselves, that we aren’t willing to put into practice a reliance on His love. Not only that, it’s often a matter of us not trusting God enough in order for Him to show us how great His Love is for us.

The wall keeping so many from living the lives God intended is built with bricks of self-reliance, and held together by a mortar made from an unwillingness to trust.

Our ability to give up constant worry is greatly dependant upon whether we are willing to put aside our lack of trust and self-reliance. They are the two key ingredients that prevent us from seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness as if there is no greater thing we could give our energy to in this present moment. Only once we abandon a present concern for ourselves can we live continuously gratified by the greatness of our God working in and through us in every moment.

As a Christian raised in America it might be a difficult to answer the question I posed at the end of my last post. The ‘wisdom’ of our culture tells us that living for the moment is ultimately a careless approach to life. We tend to think of our lives as an expected time frame made up of progressive stages that are significant only in that each stage is a part of accomplishing a respectable life to look back upon in the end. Many of us live day to day with our sights set forward in waiting and wanting of something still to come. Let me give you a picture to help illustrate what I mean.

Think back for a moment to what it felt like to climb on a set of monkey bars.  The goal of climbing monkey bars is simple. You start at one side, and with all your strength you swing forward while hanging on for dear life as you climb from one bar to the next in hasty pursuit of the other end.

I think this is a similar picture to how many of us find ourselves approaching life today. We focus on what’s ahead rather than what’s at hand, and see each stage in life as only a means to the next. And often, the driving force behind each step we take forward is the fear of falling short of our goal in sight.

Now consider how this affects our relationship with God and his purpose for us in Christ in this moment.

It says in 1 Peter  5:10, God has called us “to his eternal glory in Christ”. This is the will of God and the purpose of our lives in Christ at all times.  Don’t confuse the will of God with some unknown path we can’t quite gain access to, and hope it ends up being something like your 5 year plan. God’s will is our ever-present concern with pursuing what glorifies him.

Now, there’s a difference between being presently focused on what may likely affect our future, and being presently focused on the future. We can’t afford to disregard the consequences of what we give our present focus to, but what more can we do for tomorrow by giving it our worry today. After all, we can’t be obedient to God’s will for tomorrow, today. Therefore, it shouldn’t be our present concern. However, we can be disobedient to God’s will today through the complacent preoccupation of worry for tomorrow. This should concern us all.

Take a look at what Jesus had to say about living in worry.

Read Matt 6:25-34.

As I look through scripture, I see so much emphasis on living fully attentive to the present moment. Think about it. Our conversation with God through prayer, experiencing the Holy Spirit work in us, and obedience to God’s will are ALL intended for, and exclusively made available in the present moment. So why do we sometimes have this idea that living for the moment is so wrong?

I recently heard a fairly influential pastor in our country argue that one of the greatest downfalls of Christian youth today is their desire to live for the moment in pursuit of immediate gratification. I can’t help but wonder: Is that the real problem?

I think most of us would agree, we often see the ‘live for the moment’ lifestyle go hand in hand with living in pursuit of the immediate gratification of the flesh. Scripture makes it clear the pursuit of the flesh is not intended to be a pursuit in conjunction with following Christ. Paul reminds us of this in Galatians  5:17(among several other places in the New Testament):

“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want”

According to Paul, the change we have given ourselves over to in following Christ, is to no longer live in pursuit of the flesh, but to live solely in pursuit of God. However, let me pose this question:

Should changing what we’re presently living in pursuit of, cause us to live less for the present moment?

I want you to sit on that question and I’ll follow up this post with more thoughts later.

Its so imperative we offer grace to the people God has put in our lives. I pointed out something in an earlier post that I think we’re all very aware of but don’t always take into consideration when it comes to our perception of others:

When we accept Christ into our lives, we don’t suddenly become molds of his character. We become suddenly willing to enter the process of being molded by His character, and relinquish control over shaping our own.

Now, it’s easy for most of us to understand this in relation to lengthy process of maturity and growth in our own relationship with Christ. But we so often neglect to offer other believers the same level of grace as God’s works in their hearts. We’re all at a different point in the process of being molded by Christ. Our role in relation to that process in others, is to be a reinforcement of God’s good work in them.

“let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” Hebrews 10:24 (NIV)

I’ve really been enjoying the ways God has reminded me of his grace during these last few week. I heard a message online earlier in the week from John Piper. He was speaking about grace and the importance of us reminding ourselves every day of the gospel. We can’t afford to outgrow that message! The gospel is the foundation of the faith we stand on everyday. It’s so easy for us as Christians to tune out when we hear the gospel and feel like it’s just a message for those who don’t believe yet.  We can’t afford to move past that message in our daily walk. To some extent, when we believe we have moved beyond the message of the cross in our faith, we in fact have begun to move away from the foundation of our life with Christ. Remember daily what Christ has done for you!

I was reading Luke this week and felt like I wanted to stop and write out a few thoughts after I finished the story of a young ruler who approached Jesus (Check it out if you haven’t read it before: Luke 18:18-29). I’m always left with the same thought after I read that story: How could you stand face-to-face with Jesus, hear the truth from his lips, and not be changed forever? I think the reality is, the message of Christ can be terrifying for many of us when you really consider what he’s asking:

Give up EVERYTHING, and come follow me.

I think Christians, especially in our country, understand all too well the difficulty of giving up everything to follow Christ. However, I also think there are many Christians who are unaware of just how much they are still holding on to.

I know what you’re thinking, “It doesn’t say anywhere in scripture that EVERY Christian has to give away ALL they have”. Yeah, I’ve thought that too, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make here.

There are so many people today who claim to be Christians who don’t appear to have given God their lives. Let me explain what I mean.

Throughout the gospels we are given several accounts of Jesus asking for people to give up whatever preoccupies their time, energy, and identity, to follow him. Keep in mind Jesus wasn’t only calling people to do this who were living inherently sinful lifestyles. That is, Jesus wasn’t only going around to the drunks, prostitutes, and money hoarders and asking for them to change. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about in scripture. Read Matt 4:18-20.

When Jesus asked Simon to follow him he was working as a fisherman.  Now I think you would agree there was nothing inherently wrong with being a fisherman. However, Jesus made it clear that God’s intended purpose for Simon’s life required him to fully abandon his present occupation and identity . Jesus presented Simon with a new direction in his life and the choice to follow.

Jesus presented the young ruler with a similar offer. Now, I don’t think Jesus believed there is anything inherently wrong with owning a dollar bill, or several of them for that matter. Jesus asked the young ruler to give up his wealth because he knew his wealth was more than just an object in the man’s pocket. Jesus knew the man’s possessions were his identity, his security, and ultimately what stood in the way of him giving Christ everything.

When I read this story I hurt when the young man turns away. However, I believe he understood the message of Christ far better than many of those who claim to follow Christ today. The young ruler knew there is no partial commitment, or a halfway to faith in Christ.

We have simplified the message of Christ in our country to the point that the only required offering is a prayer to receive salvation. It has become the minimum offering to God, and in too many people’s lives, the only thing offered. So many others have become apt to the practice of slowly abandoning themselves over the course of their lifetime instead of giving Christ what he asked for when they first encountered his offer:

Give up EVERYTHING, and THEN come follow me.

Now, I’m not saying there isn’t a process to growth and maturity in Christ that will take us the course of our lifetime. That is, I don’t think from the day we accept Christ we become molds of his character through and by our willingness to give him our lives. But we must enter into the process of being molded by Christ with a true disciples heart. We can’t give the potter half the clay he asked for and expect him to formulate the blessed work he had in mind.

Take a second and spend some time in prayer. Ask God to reveal to you the things in your life that are keeping you from giving him everything you are.