Focus Your Faith

Satan is not happy when someone truly commits to Jesus Christ. The devil tries to have those who are redeemed to place their trust in anything but Christ. Along with temptations, he often attempts to do this with troubles and fears. However, our Savior presented a remedy for this in Matthew 6:33-34: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

We can see three facets in these two verses whereby we can focus our faith on Christ. Let us start with verse 34. 

I. Avoid Anxiety 34a-b “Take therefore no thought for the morrow:”

In Young’s Literal Translation {1} (YLT) it is “Be not therefore anxious for the morrow,…” “Anxious” in the Greek {1} is  μεριμναω “mer-im-nah’-o” and can mean the following:

    1) to be anxious
    1a) to be troubled with cares
    2) to care for, look out for (a thing)
    2a) to seek to promote one’s interests
    2b) caring or providing for 

While it is natural to have concerns, we must be careful not to become “troubled with cares.” I keep thinking of how much turmoil is in the world today. I was around in the 1960s and those years seem to be more tame than what we face today. However, personally, I have a calm, because in 1970 I surrendered to Christ. After reading the Holy Bible numerous times I definitely can see that Christ has told us what lies ahead as we near the end of the Age of the Gentiles. I also see a number of promises and much encouragement to face these things with Christ within.

As a true Christian matures in The Way, he {2} begins to trust God more and more, realizing that no matter what happens remaining in Christ is all that really matters.

II. Arm Yourself 34b-c 

  “for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” 

       ”for the morrow shall be anxious for its own things;” – YLT

Unless God reveals it to you by His Holy Spirit, you have no way of knowing about all the events and the actions of people the next day. It is the devil’s tactic to load up your mind ahead of time which does at least three things: (1) Prompts you to be in the place of God, (2) prompts you not to rely upon God, and (3) gets your mind and spirit off of the present battles.

“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Κακια (kak-ee’-ah) is the word translated as “evil” in the above sentence. It can mean …

       1) malignity, malice, ill-will, desire to injure
       2) wickedness, depravity
       2a) wickedness that is not ashamed to break laws
       3) evil, trouble

Just as Christ taught us to pray “give us our daily bread,” we need to focus our faith on the tasks and trials that presently confront us. To do so, we should rely on, and receive with meekness, the providence of God. Foundationally we are to rely on the leading of the Holy Spirit regarding how each incident is handled (Romans 8:14). We must obey the leading of the Holy Spirit (which never violates the written Word of God).

III. Act – 33

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The above verse is to be the priority of every Christian. Seek is a command, and it is in the present active. It should be understood as “keep seeking.” The Greek verb that is translated as such was chosen by the Holy Spirit out of five possible words and can mean the following: 

    1) to seek in order to find
   1a) to seek a thing
   1b) to seek [in order to find out] by thinking, meditating, reasoning, to enquire into
   1c) to seek after, seek for, aim at, strive after
    2) to seek i.e. require, demand
    2a) to crave, demand something from someone 

No clamoring or wishing is indicated in the verb.

Such seeking is a priority. While it is true that every true Christian has the Kingdom of God within themselves (Luke 17:21), we should desire to know and operate within that Kingdom to the fullest extent possible in our mortal body (Colossians 1:9-13). Along with that naturally comes the righteousness of God, which is Christ Himself (Romans 1:16-17). If we remain faithful in this, we will receive God’s best for us (not necessarily what we think or feel is the best for us).

As it is written in Philippians 4:6, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

My friend, if you are not surrendered to Christ I would like for you to come to Him now. There is a lot of trouble today, and there will be more to come, but, with Christ within, you will develop a godly satisfaction and peace as you walk daily with God through Christ.

Notes:

{1} The YLT is from the OnlineBible computer program which can be downloaded at http://www.onlinebible.net, which also contains reference numbers for the Greek words and their definitions from James Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.

{2} Without apology, used in the traditional sense meaning both genders. Political correctness is a mess.

God willing links to the actual audio of this message will be “live” by 23:00 EST, January 22, 2013 at http://www.sapphirestreams.com/life/audioM.html#M143 . This article is in a form of an outline for this message.

Holy Scripture is from the 1769 Authorized Version.