A Kingdom-focused Body

In the last post, I talked about the accountability that comes with being a member of the corporate church – what you should be doing as the body of Christ. That got me thinking about the next big question: WHY do we shy away from being active members of the body?

I can only speak from personal experience, but I think I have a pretty good start on the answer. We don’t think we know enough. Ok, so go learn it. That’s an easy one. More likely? We don’t want to know it. Knowing what God commanded means one of two things – you’re justified that your actions are Christ-like, or you’re convicted because they aren’t.

Let’s talk about that conviction. We’re very quick to quote the promises of God in Scripture – but how many of the conditions can you name for that promise you know so well? We’re quick to get mad at God for not answering our prayer, but if you “scroll up” a few verses I can promise you almost every time you’re out of alignment.

Whatever you ask, you shall receive.

Let’s start with a big one. There are several scriptures that quote something to this effect: John 14:13, 1 John 5:14, Matthew 7:7 What we most often miss are the qualifiers: that the Father may be glorified in the Son, if we ask according to His will, Matthew has a discussion on judging others just before that promise. James 4:3 clearly states, you ask with wrong motives.

Jesus (or God) will draw near to you.

This one is in James 4:8. If you keep reading, you realize it keeps going:

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. – James 4:8,10

That’s a whole lot more than just a free pass to have God draw near to you – you have clear actions outlined in order for that to happen. It’s mentioned again here:

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. – Psalm 145:18

Did you catch that second part? All who call on him in truth.

And yet, we wonder why we have periods where God’s presence isn’t felt, or he isn’t answering prayers, or there is no comfort.  Often, we’re approaching God with dirty hands. Rather than repenting and settling up with God on where we’ve gone wrong, we jump straight into begging God to come near and give us the peace and comfort we desire. Our prayers often sound like a grocery checklist of the things that we plan and desire, instead of humbling ourselves to his will and our inadequacies (both representing the truth.) Why do you think praising God is mentioned over and over? With praise comes humility; a recognition that he is so much bigger, so much more powerful than we can ever be.

Say also: “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.” – 1 Chronicles 16:35

We have to remember that everything God does is for his glory. If he isn’t glorified, he isn’t going to answer.

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen – Romans 11:36 (NLT)

We are commanded to praise God through the yes’s and the no’s; to stand at his feet in awe at the majesty, mercy, and justice of the Father. To repent of sin, seek God’s will over our own, sacrifice our desires to be replaced by his, humble ourselves. That is when he draws near.

The Lord is good.

Don’t freak out – I’m not going to say that the Lord isn’t good…he is – implicitly.

BUT…there are more scriptures than I can count that talk about the goodness of the Lord, and I think when we read those scriptures we read it as “the Lord is good, so he will do good things for me by my definition of good things.” Or we see “taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8), and we read blessed as receiving everything I want for myself.

We tend to forget what we talked about before – God does everything for his own glory and filter out that “blessed” and “good” are by God’s definitions. When God is blessing and being good – he’s doing it on a kingdom scale, not on the scale of one individual life. Yes, we individually benefit from the blessing of God, but that’s a secondary benefit; the primary goal of God is always the kingdom first. When we shift our mindset to kingdom purposes, we feel more blessed – because now we’re operating on the same scale as God…Kingdom first, Me second.

The Lord will always provide for his children.

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. – 2 Corinthians 9:8

At the risk of beating the same drum…let’s admit how we read this. “God will bless me abundantly, so that in all things at all times, I will have all that I want, and abound in good work that benefits me.” We leave out the “is able” part, and we skip over need and mentally translate that into want, and we define good work as what benefits us personally. Don’t get defensive, we ALL do it. But growing closer to God and deepening our walk with him requires us to start seeing these selfish, personal translations as flawed. It requires that we start putting our heart in the same place as God – which is solely Kingdom focused.

I think the disconnect is often that kingdom focus doesn’t always allow us to see the result. Our actions today may be impacting people we don’t know or generations after us in the Kingdom realm. We’ve become so accustomed to instant gratification that we ignore things that we can’t see the results of; we classify them as failures because we didn’t personally experience the breakthrough or the impact. Kingdom minded people do things because they trust that God is in it, even if they don’t get to see the direct impact.  They align their desires with those of God, they obey what the Word of God says, and they act in faith that God is good and there is purpose…even when I can’t see it.

I guess I’m challenging you today to a few things:

1. Before you get mad at God for not answering, or drawing near, or whatever else you’ve asked for – evaluate where your heart is first. Look at the scripture that is the promise you think you’re owed, and then look around that in the scripture – are there conditions that you aren’t meeting?

2. When you’re using scripture to support your conversations with God, evaluate what outcome you’re expecting. Is this meant to benefit you personally? Or is it to glorify God with a kingdom focused request?

3. Think hard about your mental translation of scripture. Are you unintentionally making it all about you?