kingdom

What If You Were Heir to a Kingdom?

/ Clay D. / Leave a comment

We’ve all probably tried to imagine it at one time or another—it’s part of being a child and playing make believe.

The fantasy is…what if you inherited your own kingdom? What would you do?

As a child, it’s fun to imagine such scenarios. And it’s easy to dream of all the things you would do if you did inherit a kingdom.

Perhaps your dream as a child was to sit on a throne and issue decrees to the citizens of your kingdom. Maybe you’d love to have others wait on you all day long, taking care of your every need.

The list could go on and on of the fun things you could do if you had your own kingdom to rule over.

Unfortunately, few of us will ever come into a kingdom—at least here on earth.

The good news is that if we’re believers in Christ, we’re guaranteed a kingdom someday. 

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Luke 12:32

Think about these words for a minute and let them sink in.

Your heavenly father is actually going to give you a kingdom! It’s like all your childhood dreams have come true.

But what does this mean exactly? Without a doubt, there is controversy over the meaning and timing of the word “kingdom” in this verse in Luke and similar verses.

However, one meaning it could have is Jesus’ millennial kingdom on earth that He establishes after His second coming.

Many believers overlook this 1000-year reign of Christ on earth; however, it is an important part of eschatology (the study of the end times or last things).

Besides our being a part of the eternal kingdom of God in Heaven, I believe that Jesus may be referring to his millennial kingdom.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:2a:

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

Believers in Christ are the saints Paul refers to in this verse.

What world is he talking about? It could very well be the world during Christ’s 1000-year reign. 

If so, then we’ll reign alongside Him:

Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Rev. 20:6

Could it be that we’ll sit beside Jesus and co-reign with Him? I believe that’s what the Bible tells us.

We’ll get to have a kingdom, after all!

Ed Hindson’s wonderful book, Future Glory, details the millennial kingdom and all the other wonderful things God has in store for believers. I highly recommend it.

However, to receive this kingdom, you have to accept Jesus as your Savior while you’re still on earth. 

If you haven’t done that yet, it’s the most important decision of your life. It will determine where you spend all of eternity—not just the 1000 years of Christ’s reign on earth.

The choice is yours. However, once you’ve passed on from this life, it’s too late. Make the decision today to begin your new life.

And look forward to reigning with Christ during the millennium.

Here’s the Perfect Solution If You Want a Worry-Free Life

/ Clay D. / 1 Comment

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?

Matt. 6:24-25

How many of us are guilty of the sin of worrying about our finances? (Yes, it’s a sin to worry—whether it’s about money or anything else.)

It’s so easy to slip into the old familiar pattern of fretting while looking over our monthly bills, or of getting discouraged when we’re trying to balance our household budget. 

However, God doesn’t want us to worry—at all. Over and over in the Bible, we find that truth.

In fact, right in this passage, He tells us how to avoid worry and anxiety about our everyday needs. 

You see, if money is what drives us, we’re naturally going to worry. If money is your chief goal, then there will never be enough of it to satisfy you. 

For example, if you’re short on money, you’ll worry about how to get more. And if you’ve got plenty of money to pay your bills, you’ll worry about losing your income and your standard of living. 

It’s a NO WIN situation when you serve money. 

On the other hand, if we’re serving God, we can relax free and easy. That’s right—we can go through life without money worries. He will provide us with everything we need—food, clothes, and shelter. 

As we’re told a few verses down the page, God already knows what we need anyway. By the time we get around to asking for help, He has already put His plan into action for our provision. 

But the key is to seek His kingdom first—you’ve got to give Him 100%. Not 90%…not even 99%…but all of you.

We have to put serving God and His purposes at the very top of our list. Everything we do must be geared toward living with God as the #1 priority in our lives. 

I, for one, have too often been guilty of trying to serve both God and money. I mean, surely it can be done, right? 

I’ve thought, I can put in these extra hours at work and still keep my focus on God. I can squeeze a little time in for God here and there during the day or just before bed. That will be fine, won’t it?

WRONG. There is no person on the planet who has the means to put both God and money at the top of their list of priorities. It will always be one of the two, to the exclusion of the other. 

It’s much wiser to take God at His word and make Him the priority, as you’ll receive all the rewards of serving Him AND have your needs met at the same time. 

However, try to make money the object of desire in your life and you’ll miss out on a fulfilling, enriching relationship with God, as well as many of the blessings He has in mind for you.

Our Father wants us to make the wise choice, so He lays it all out for us in these two wonderful verses. 

He tells us flat out that it’s impossible to serve both Him and money, so don’t even try. “Therefore…” He says (and this is a big “therefore”), we can live without worry and anxiety.

He’s saying first of all that it’s pointless to try to put Him and money at the head of our lives, AND as a result of this truth, we don’t have to worry about “things” because He will take care of all that—so long as we seek His kingdom first.

So, if you want a life that’s free from worry, anxiety, and stress, seek God first. Everything else will fall into place. 

He’s waiting for you to make the right choice.

Don’t Let Money Come Between You and God

/ Clay D. / 1 Comment

Don’t let money come between you and God. 

That’s the thought that struck me this morning as I was working. I wrote that sentence down so that I could expand on it later. 

The idea was that you shouldn’t look to God as your source of money and then blame Him when you don’t have enough of it (or feel like you have enough). 

He tells us that He’s our source, that everything comes through Him. He’s our provider for all our sustenance and needs:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matt. 6:31-33

However, if we truly believe that, AND we feel like there’s a lack in our lives, we can get to the point where we blame God for our money problems. That if we’re relying on Him and He doesn’t come through, then He’s the problem. 

Matthew 6:24 tells us that you can’t serve both God and money. You’ll end up loving the one and hating the other. Take your pick, but you can’t have it both ways, we’re told. 

I believe it’s far too easy to get to the point where we blame God for our situation in life. I know that I’ve personally done that many, many times—too many to even count. 

I’ve felt like God “owed” me because I was seeking Him. That since I was a “good” Christian, I deserved to live a better lifestyle. 

After all, I can look around and see other people with bigger houses, newer cars, more exotic vacations. Some of these people are followers of Christ, and some of them aren’t. 

Since I am a believer in Christ, I should at least have as lavish a lifestyle as someone who couldn’t care less about God, right? Am I not entitled to be a little disgruntled if I struggle with finances and the guy who owns a strip club is raking in the dough?

That’s silly thinking I know. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s ever felt that way. It does make you wonder why God allows the so-called “evil” person to prosper, when those who are “faithful” are left to wonder how they’re going to pay their bills each month.

I guess that’s the whole point. To fall into that trap of wrongful thinking, my whole attitude toward money must be misguided. I’ve placed money above my relationship with God. 

Somewhere along the way I decided that if I didn’t have the kind of money I thought I should, then God isn’t holding up His end of the deal.

And that’s just completely wrong. Without a doubt, it’s wrong. Money has become more important than God if I’m allowing it to influence how I feel about Him.

I realize this truth, but it’s hard to break out of that pattern of thinking. In fact, I’ve been trying for years, decades even, to be free from this line of wrongful thinking. 

Sometimes I feel that I’m no closer to where I should be than I was 25 years ago. It makes me wonder if I’ll ever get to the point where my alignment with money and God is correct. 

If I could finally, at last, learn the lesson about money and finances that God has been trying to teach me for so long, then perhaps He would bless me with more money. 

But isn’t it wrong to even think in those terms? If I only want to learn the lesson for the ultimate outcome of gaining more money, isn’t that really just perpetuating a vicious cycle that I’ll never break out of?

I have to get to the point where I don’t care how much money I have, a lot or a little—it doesn’t matter. I must accept, and get down into the core of my very being, that God is all I need. That He is my all in all—my provider, my savior, my father. 

I must truly believe that it matters not whether I have a little or a lot, as long as I have God (through my faith in Christ), then I have all I need in this life.