Whom Will You Serve

While we are familiar with kingdoms in the United States, I don’t think we fully understand the impact of living under a monarchy. In these goverments, the king has the final say as to what can or cannot be done. His will rules the nation and people must honor and obey the king or queen. The monarchy can choose to be self-serving or benevolent toward the people.

Jesus continued to teach us to pray, “You kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) This part of the prayer calls upon Jesus to rule in our hearts and help us to faithfully follow Him. He is truly a benevolent King with power and authority over all people and nations. We can submit to His rule in our hearts because we know that He loves us and will do good for us.

Holy Father

Some of us grew up with less than perfect fathers. They were absent or nonsupporting. Many were even cruel and abusive. For that, I am truly sorry, but know that I grew up in the same environment. So our view of fatherhood, is probably distorted by our experiences. But we have the perfect, holy, Father in heaven that wants to heal these broken places and replace them with His all-encompassing love.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9) How awesome it is to know that God is our faithful Father, who is always loving us, protecting us, providing for us, caring for us, drawing us close to Him, and giving us good gifts. And He does all this from His majesty on His throne over all things in heaven and on earth. Nothing can keep His steadfast love from us.

Strengthened Heart

Recently, I was diagnosed with a degree of heart failure. It is a humbling prognosis discovering that my heart is weak. But on another level, I have always known that my heart fails me at times. Sometimes, I can not do the good things that I want to do. At other times, I do the very thing that I don’t want to do.

Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” We may fail at many things, but God will always give us strength to keep moving forward. He has already granted us the victory over sin and death in Jesus Christ. He will strengthen our hearts to do the good things that He wants us to do and reject the bad things that He doesn’t want us to do.

Doing My Best

Decades ago, I started a tradition with my sons, which we called “Sports Day”. It is a tradition that I have continued now with my grandsons. Since my sons and grandsons were and are athletically inclined, we spent these days trying out as many sports as we could. It was an awesome time of parent-child interaction and enjoyment. As you can imagine, I didn’t always give my best effort trying to win. It was more about enjoying the moment and each other.

II Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” God wants us to give our best effort for Him all the time. This requires that we know His Word and faithfully apply it to our lives by the power of His Spirit. Unlike Sports Day, we actually enjoy our relationship with God more when we are giving our best for Him, in return for His giving of His best, His own Son, for us.

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Make the Right Choice

In Acts 2:36-38 Peter speaks to the people of Jerusalem and says, “‘Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The people of Jerusalem had made the wrong choice by not believing Jesus and had Him crucified. Confronted by Peter, they were cut to the heart and wanted to know what they should do.

We need to be careful to always make the right decision, by believing Jesus and trusting in His grace and mercy. When facing a problem and tempted to worry, let’s make the right choice and trust Jesus to guide us and protect us. When encountering our fears, let’s make the right choice and trust Jesus to be a shield about us. When facing a need, let’s make the right choice by believing that Jesus will provide for us. Most importantly, when confronted with our human failure and weaknesses, let’s believe Jesus to be our Savior and Lord and receive the forgiveness of our sins and salvation for our souls.