Sunday, January 7, 2018

Focus on Positive Continuities


UV 2878/10000 Focus on Positive Continuities
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Matthew 6 v 25

Whatever we do continually, we will get good at it. If we worry, we will get good at it. If we meditate, we will get good at it. If we persist in doing good, we will get good at it. But the results or fruit of worrying are not good but highly negative, of no use to self or others. Worries choke or suffocate the fruitfulness of our faith and of our character and our very lives. The results or fruit of meditation are good and highly positive, of use to self and others. Jesus in this uni-verse is asking us to focus on the positive continuities of life or good habits. We need not worry about what we do not have, rather we need to think about what we can do with what we have. Focus on positive continuities will release the pure oxygen of hope to energise, sustain and move us into taking action here and now to improve things, to get a little closer to obtaining that which we need.

Food, clothes, shelter and transport are essential but these are not what constitutes the essense or purpose of life. If we focus continually on our relationship with God through Jesus, meditate on His word, do our best to imitate Him, the Lord will take care of our needs in more ways and in a better way than we can imagine. Jesus did not say, “Do not make plans for these creature comforts or work to get them.” He said that we should not waste our thoughts, time and energy on worrying about our lack or future lack in any of these essentials. By worrying or giving into anxious thoughts, we are not able to add an hour to our days or an year to our lives in the sense it is not going to make us more productive. By worrying, we are not going to grow intellectually, emotionally, physically or spiritually. Instead, Jesus encourages us to cast all these burdens on Him who cares for even the tiniest and least significant of His creatures and provides for them. The Lord God has a grand plan for each of His children who depend on Him. By praying and meditating on the word of the Lord, we will be inspired, motivated to work harder at realizing our goals, sustained by the hope that the Lord is partnering with us in all of our efforts and that He will bring it to perfection or completion of fruit or results. We need to worry about nothing but pray about everything with thanksgiving and faith and the assurance that our prayer will be answered, our need will be met in the Lord or by the Lord will envelop our hearts and minds exuding a peace that is beyond our human conception or understanding.

Therefore, we should meditate and aim on obtaining the spiritual equivalent or parallel of physical food, clothing, shelter, spiritual weapons and armour, riches, the treasures of wisdom hidden in His word- the kind that bacteria and moulds do not attack, the kind that moths do not destroy, the kind that rust and time cannot erode and that thieves cannot steal. When we are obsessed with these priorities of the kingdom of Jesus, we achieve the higher or primary purpose the Lord has both created and redeemed us for. The more we find and give away the spiritual victuals and provisions, the more blessed we are, the more we are a blessing to the world.
Prateep V Philip

No comments:

Post a Comment