My Kingdom Is Not Of This World

I sure can!

When your primary concern is for something other than the kingdom of God, then everything in your life will be out too.

The kingdom of God was if you like, the motif or brand name running through everything Jesus taught.

Jesus made it the central note of His preaching and also His praying, didn’t He?

It is time now to ask ourselves:

What exactly does Jesus mean when He uses the word kingdom?

The root of the word kingdom in the Greek means to rule or to reign.

The kingdom of God, then, is the rule or reign of God in our lives for which we are to pray for and to seek…Repeat!!

Jesus spoke of the kingdom as being in the present as well as in the future.

In Luke 17:21, Jesus said: “the kingdom of God is within you.”

Wherever there is a heart that is surrendered to the claims and demands of Jesus Christ, there the kingdom exists…

But there is a day coming, says Jesus in Matthew 8:11: “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”

In other words, Jesus is saying here that “when both small and great will sit side by side in the kingdom, and realize that in God’s order of things there are no favorites.”

Illus: Martha Snell Nicholson puts it this way in her poem entitled:

Christ’s Plan for Me

When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ

And He shows me His plan for me;

The plan of my life as it might have been

Had He had His way, and I see.

How I blocked Him here and I checked Him there

And I would not yield my will,

Shall I see grief in my Savior’s eyes?

Grief though He loves me still?

Oh, He’d have me rich, and I stand there poor,

Stripped of all but His grace,

While my memory runs like a hunted thing

Down the paths I can’t retrace.

Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break

With tears that I cannot shed.

I’ll cover my face with my empty hands

And bow my uncrowned head.

No. Lord of the years that are left to me

I yield them to Thy hand.

Take me, make me, mold me

To the pattern Thou hast planned.

Jesus Christ has a unique plan for each one of us…we need to be ready and open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit so that we do not miss out on what this means for each one of us.

We need to understand that throughout Scripture, all revelation of God’s Word to us is an invitation. In other words, all that God reveals to us in His Word invites us to live with Him forever...these are the words of eternal life!!

This is the reality of Jesus’ kingship... His kingdom…Jesus is Lord, so we might live near him in love. He is King of the World, not over us but for us and with us.

A challenge for me this week is this: What one area of my life can I hand over to the King of my World, Jesus Christ, this week?

What about you?

In Jesus’ Name, AMEN!!