\u201cFor the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.\u00a0 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 6:32-33 CSB
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I have a confession to make, I\u2019m trying to find verses for our devotionals that aren\u2019t the everyday ones.\u00a0 I\u2019m finding it fun to find new verses on the same topic, but not as well known. Saying all that, I feel like this is a well known verse that gets overused and taken out of context.\u00a0 This verse is one I\u2019ve been trying not to use, but today is the day the Lord has made, and this is the verse He’s given me.
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The Gentiles are us in this verse, things are worldly needs: food, drink, clothing, the basics.\u00a0 The \u201cthings\u201d are not new cars, big houses or large bank accounts. We misinterpret this verse if that is what we think \u201cthings\u201d are.\u00a0 We assume when the scripture says, \u201cyour heavenly Father knows that you need them,\u201d that means new car, big house, large bank accounts.\u00a0 That is not the meaning at all. This verse is simple saying, God knows we need to eat and wear clothes, that is all we really need to live on this earth.\u00a0 We think we need more than that to be able to live, we\u2019re wrong. I have had so many conversations about this with people, I always get frustrated. I want to scream, \u201cTake your eyes off of things and put them on God.\u201d\u00a0 Focusing on God is always better than any \u201cthing\u201d you will have here on earth.
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But \u201cthings\u201d are captivating, they are a temptation, I struggle just like everyone else. That is why I\u2019ve been using this story in my life when I get tempted. I saw it on Facebook the other day. An old man is being tempted, so he looks up to the sky and says, \u201cLord I need Your help, Your territory is in trouble.\u201d I had to think about this statement at first to understand, but I realized the truth in it. We are God\u2019s territory, when we\u2019re being tempted, we\u2019re not alone. God is with us in our temptations and can help us avoid them, if we cry out to Him. My problem is I don\u2019t cry out to God enough in my temptation. When I\u2019m tempted to focus on \u201cthings,\u201d instead of God, I just need to tell Him that. He\u2019s got my back. The tough part is realizing when you are focused on \u201cthings\u201d or being tempted. Often we don\u2019t even know we\u2019re doing it when we\u2019re doing it. I know I don\u2019t for sure. But the older I get the more I\u2019m able to recognize it and avoid it. Recognizing temptation is why I love to give, when I give things away they don\u2019t have a hold on me. Whether I give money, or \u201cthings\u201d, it releases me of their hold on me, it helps me keep my focus on God.
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If we are going to be happy where we are, we need to understand this. Understanding life is not about \u201cthings,\u201d but about God, is how we will find joy in the midst of sorrow (Psalm 32:7 NIV). We will find peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7 NIV). We will find strength to rise like eagles and soar (Isaiah 40:31 NIV). We will be happy with what we have.
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\u201cFor the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.\u00a0 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 6:32-33 CSB I have a confession to make, I\u2019m trying to find verses for our devotionals that aren\u2019t… Continue reading GO TO GOD FIRST<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1005,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}