Welcome to part four of our series about the blessings and promises of God for you. So far, we’ve seen quite a lot, ranging from our foundation in Christ, to a greater awareness of the the totality of salvation.
Now, with this information in mind, we will explore how to guard and keep these things. Knowing about your blessings and promises is the first step, but even that doesn’t mean much if you are being robbed of them constantly.
Fortunately, the scriptures have us covered in this regard as well, and today we will be looking at how to effective keep and guard your treasure of blessings in Christ.
If you have been viewing the studies here for any length of time, you have probably heard me mention that Jesus has made complete redemption available, and that He has made complete provision for your spirit, your soul, your body and even your finances. And indeed we have studied about His provision for your spirit, His provision for your body, and His provision for your finances.
Yet it occurred to me that we had not really explored His provision for your soul (that is your mind and emotions), in quite some time. And this area of His provision is just as important, just as powerful, and just as freeing as the others; and so we will be looking at it today in this study.
God is a giver. In-fact every good and perfect gift comes from Him. Some of us may be familiar with the scriptures that speak on this point, but how often do we truly stop to consider the implications of what they are saying? Do we really believe and understand that every good gift actually comes from God?
In this study today, I would like to share with you just how deep and wonderful this truth of God actually is; and as we see it together, we will be able to appreciate the ultimate gift of Jesus Christ and His Grace, all the more.
The title of this study today, is honestly a topic that people have struggled with from the very beginning of time. When a thought, emotion or feeling comes your way, especially a negative or even oppressive one, what do you do about it? How do you handle it?
For some, thoughts, emotions and feelings can be controlling and even rule their life. Some people are held captive by their emotions, and allow their feelings to rule their life. But what can be done about it?
Well, in-fact God has quite a bit to say on the subject, and we are going to answer these questions today, as always by looking at Jesus, and seeing the reality of His finished work for us.
One of the more notable statements made by Jesus can be found in Matthew 6:33, in which Jesus says that we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all of the other things will be added to us. Now, as believers we have become fairly adept at seeking God’s righteousness, as that was made available for us by Jesus on the cross. Yet it is interesting that His righteousness was not the first thing mentioned by Jesus when telling us what to search for. Jesus said that we are to seek first the Kingdom of God.
Now in many Christian circles, the Kingdom of God is not talked about very much; most people don’t even properly know what the Kingdom of God even is, or how to define it. We haven’t really sought it first as we were told to, but we have instead been seeking His Righteousness without His Kingdom. That’s why today in this study we will be examining what His Kingdom is, and what it means to seek (and find) the Kingdom of God.
A phrase which makes a lot of people uneasy, is when Jesus said to “Take up your cross”. It makes people uneasy because the cross is an instrument of torturous suffering, terrible pain and an agonizing death. It is certainly not a pleasant image to have in our mind, and it generally doesn’t fill us with peace or confidence to have this image imprinted on us either. This situation is exasperated further when religious teachers use this phrase as a way to hammer legalistic, performance-driven ideas into our brain either; as is often the case in many churches today.
So today in this study, we will be examining this phrase from the perspective of the finished work of Jesus Christ, and what this statement means for us today. Jesus obviously said it for a reason, and it wasn’t to frighten or intimidate people – He knew what He was doing and He knew what He would do for us. As we see the truth of Christ in this area, it will free us from the irrational fear that this statement causes due to lack of understanding of what Jesus truly said.
The word “know” is an interesting word. We sometimes use it to refer to personal, even intimate relations, and other times we use it in more of a formal and distant familiarity – as in “I know of him.”
The Scriptures speak of knowing God, in-fact the entire Bible is designed to show us Jesus for the purpose of us knowing Him. Even so, there are a great many believers today who know more of God, than actually know Him. You may have even heard me say that before and wondered about it. So today we will be exploring what it means to actually know God, and how a real relationship with Jesus benefits us in our daily lives.