If you will put God first in your life, seeking his Kingdom, doing His will, and giving priority to His concerns, you will see that He will honor that by personally taking care of you in return. He will see to it that your needs are always met. But more than that, as you delight yourself in Him, He will even go beyond meeting your needs to granting the desires of your heart.
One day a brochure came in the mail to my office. The brochure was about a training conference in Boston. I had no interest in attending the conference, but the brochure immediately inspired me with a longing to travel.
On the cover of the brochure was a photo of a sculpture in the Boston Common of the ducklings depicted in Robert McCloskey’s book Make Way for Ducklings. I know exactly where that sculpture is. If you dropped me into the city of Boston, I could walk directly to it. This photo immediately brought back good memories of traveling to Boston and other cities and spending days just seeing as much as I could possibly take in while I was there. Years ago that had been one of my favorite things to do.
The memories triggered by the brochure photo brought back a desire to travel—to get away, take a trip for two or three days, and just spend time enjoying exploring another city.
As I thought it over, I decided against it. My conscious decision was “No, my money needs to go into God’s Kingdom now.” But I kept the brochure because the picture brought back fond memories of traveling.
The next morning, first thing, my phone rang. It was the secretary in another department whose son worked for Southwest Airlines. She told me that he had a ticket that he was not going to use, and she wondered if I would like to use it. She didn’t know anyone else who would use it, and it would expire if it was not used within the next several days. She told me that it was good for any Southwest Airlines destination.
I told her that I would be thrilled to take it, and then she asked me where I would like to go. She did some checking online and created possible weekend travel itineraries for Boston, Chicago, and Washington D.C.
I settled on Chicago because I had never really spent much time there, and she took care of all of the arrangements for the ticket. She also told me that, because it was a company voucher, I would be flying standby, so she advised me not to check any luggage, but to take everything in a carry-on bag. That presented a small problem because I didn’t have a carry-on bag that would be able to hold a weekend’s worth of stuff.
After work that day, after all the flight arrangements had been made, I stopped by my brother’s house to see how their garage sale was going. Just before I left, I spotted something under a table that caught my eye.
My cousin, who is an airline pilot, had donated two of his older carry-on bags to my brother’s garage sale. One of them was perfect for what I needed for my trip to Chicago! I would never have bought a brand-new bag for just one weekend trip, but this one was perfect, and it cost next to nothing! I gave my sister-in-law some money for the bag, and in less than a day, I was all set for a weekend trip to Chicago! Later, I booked a hotel online to complete the preparations for the trip. Lodging, food, and a parking charge at the airport were my only expenses.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Chicago. I would not have gone had the plane ticket not been provided for me, but I believe the Lord saw the desire of my heart, and in this case, when I made a conscious choice to put His Kingdom ahead of my own desires, God granted those desires. I still call that my “Miracle Trip” because the plane ticket and my luggage were both provided in the same day to answer a desire of my heart.
Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.—Psalm 37:4 (NASB)
Test Him
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the LORD of hosts.—Malachi 3:10–12 (NASB)
In this passage from Malachi, God invites us to test Him with the tithe (giving Him the first ten percent of our income) and allow Him to prove that He is faithful to bless us abundantly in return.
If you have taken God up on this challenge and have proven Him to be faithful to bless you when you tithe, why not trust Him with all of your needs as well? Why not give Him a chance to prove that He will be faithful to take care of all your needs when you focus on seeking His Kingdom first?
You Will “Discover” Your True Life
Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also].
For whoever is bent on saving his [temporal] life [his comfort and security here] shall lose it [eternal life]; and whoever loses his life [his comfort and security here] for My sake shall find it [life everlasting].
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life [his blessed life in the kingdom of God]? Or what would a man give as an exchange for his [blessed] life [in the kingdom of God]?
For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory (majesty, splendor) of His Father with His angels, and then He will render account and reward every man in accordance with what he has done.—Matthew 16:24–27 (AMP)
“But Other People Aren’t Doing What They’re Supposed to Do!”
This is absolutely true, but wouldn’t it be a tragedy if you allow this to be your excuse for losing out on all that God has for you? Instead of looking to the people who are making poor life choices, we can find encouragement in the lives of others, like the Apostle Paul, who have forsaken all else to pursue God’s best. We can take courage in the examples of those who have simplified their lives to a single focus of “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.”—Philippians 3:13–14 (AMP).
“But What If I Don’t Feel Qualified?”
Join the club! Here are a few of God’s champions who have been members of that group:
- Moses (Exodus 3:11)
- Gideon (Judges 6:15)
- David (1 Samuel 16:11)
- Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:6)
- Peter (Luke 5:8)
- Insert your name alongside other great champions of God!
But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!—2 Corinthians 12:9 (AMP)
Consider the example of Elisha (2 Kings 13:20–21). He died and was entombed. Talk about being unqualified for future ministry! You can’t get any more “unqualified” than dead! You would think that ministry would be over for him at that point… but wait!
A dead man was lowered into Elisha’s tomb. As soon as the dead man’s body touched the bones of Elisha, the man revived and stood on his feet!
Elisha didn’t even allow the fact that he was physically dead to stop him from ministering to others! Even though he could not raise himself from the dead, he didn’t let that stop him from raising another man! Now, what’s your excuse?
(Bible scholars might have all kinds of problems with my humorous application of Elisha’s story. I’ll let them worry about that. My purpose here is to encourage you to step into a lifestyle of doing the works of Jesus, even if you feel unqualified.
There are those who spend their entire lives only studying the Word of God, and then there are those who become a living, breathing word of God, reaching out to demonstrate the love and power of God to the people they encounter. My prayer is that you will join the second group.)
*You yourselves are our letter. You are written on our hearts. Everyone knows you and reads you. You make it clear that you are a letter from Christ. You are the result of our work for God. You are a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. You are a letter written not on tablets made out of stone but on human hearts.—2 Corinthians 3:2–3 (NIRV) *
