In 1995 when the Lord Jesus Christ brought my wife and I back to Him, He impressed a Scripture verse unto me, which has since become my life's foundation. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" Matt6:33. I had by this time, become very successful in my career, rising up from a sale representative to Sales Director for the MNC that I worked for. I had also backslidden to a state, where I thought I could do everything in my own strength and "positive" thinking.
This attitude compelled me to work long hours and this had a negative impact on my family life.
The age old reply that most fathers give when asked this question of, why they work long hours was my reply too! "I am working for my child's future and our early retirement plan, so that we can enjoy life in our early 50s. Strangely this ploy of the enemy is the same throughout all ages. By the time I reached my career's peak (was in the succession plan for the post of Country Manager), my family was in shambles.
God in His mercy pulled the brakes and helped me focus back on my family. As I shared in my earlier blog, my wife was very ill during this period and so I had a decision to make, whether or not to bother about her condition and continue to focus on my successful career, or to pull back and take care of her. My decision, praise God, was to pull back on my career and care for my wife.
This started the process of seeking God and that meant looking to the supernatural healing power of the Living God! We had seen all the specialist and they could do nothing for her. Despite being heavily dosed with drugs she was still not better and was in a depression. Our evenings and weekends was a frantic rush to attend one church meeting after another, where we would seek for God's mercy and divine help for our situation.
As we sought God and His righteousness, we too began to be convicted by the Holy Spirit to confess our deepest secret sins to each other. This we did, and it brought about a release from the grip of the enemy, as he had no more hold over us in those areas of our lives. This exhilarating feeling of being set free from our bondages and this transparency between us, helped us to completely trust each other. This liberating experience had poised us to face the challenges which since had come our way and which will continue to come our way into the future... till He come again.
Let's us continue to meditate on God's goodness as His Spirit continues to minister to us in His Word which we find before verse 33!
"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both. "If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. "Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion--do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. "If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers--most of which are never even seen--don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. (v24-33 - Msg)
No comments:
Post a Comment