What motivates you?
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. – Matthew 6:33
I grew up on this verse. It was referenced in the children’s songs at Sabbath School, the Memory Verses at Pathfinders and frequently brought up throughout the week during my school’s Bible classes. I think I even heard my father quote it, which is a (very) rare occurrence.
Now, I mean to take nothing away from this verse, but I always struggled with it. Maybe it was because heaven, the Kingdom of God, was a very abstract thing to me. I couldn’t, and if I’m honest, still can’t really imagine it.
I take comfort in the words of Paul’s quote:
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
because I truly cannot imagine. It may be for this reason I can be rather apathetic to the aspiration of entering heaven. I believe many people think the Christian’s motivation is to avoid Hell and get to Heaven. And, while this may be a motivating factor for some, it never was for me.
In fact it was one of my many self-obscurities, things I put aside as too introspectively time-consuming to bother with. Until I really studied the Parables of the Lost Things. In Luke 15 you can find the Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Prodigal Son. The first two stories are about a Shepherd searching for his sheep and a woman searching for her coin. In these stories the theme is God searching for us. 🤯. (My favourite emoji since its release in 2017). We are not only advised to seek first… God is also seeking us!
The greater part of the chapter is taken up with the parable of the Prodigal Son who, because of his prodigious ways, was also lost. I mean prodigious in the original sense of the word, that his ways were lavish and extravagant. It is a well known story, but I urge you to take another look at the story in Luke 15:11-32.
For some reason I always identified strongly with the brother who stayed back with the father. I have no siblings, so it was not for that reason, but I do have a strong sense of justice and always felt that he was hard done by. Why shouldn’t he feel ripped off, working hard back at the farm while little brother headed off for the party of his life? I can’t remember exactly where I read, or heard, the paraphrase of verse 31, “Time with the Father is the reward…” but, if possible, my mind was blown a second time. No party, no matter how sumptuously rich, elaborate, or luxurious can compare to time spent with the Father.
Whatever your motivation, be it in everyday life or your Christian walk, I urge you to spend time with the Father. You can do this by simply saying a prayer, reading the Bible or sharing the Word with someone.
