Wednesday: The Kingdom First: All Else Added
WEEK 42
WEDNESDAY
THE KINGDOM FIRST: ALL ELSE ADDED
Matthew 6:28-33
We noted yesterday that the disciples began their prayer life on the center; they prayed first and foremost for the Holy Spirit and not for things. They got off on the right foot; hence they went far.
But there was another fact to be noted in praying for the Holy Spirit; each prayed for the Spirit to come not upon that person alone but upon the individual and the group. Had it been individuals praying for an individual coming of the Holy Spirit, it might have been a covered desire for uniqueness in spiritual power. In other words, it might have been all in the service of the ego. But here they prayed for each and all; they prayed together “with one accord.” What each wanted individually, each wanted for all. This canceled out egoism and socialized the experience of the Holy Spirit. Yet it deeply individualized it, for the person is more personalized when transcending self and thinking of others. We find ourselves when we lose ourselves.
Did this praying for the Holy Spirit preclude their praying for their own needs—material needs? On the contrary, those needs were met. Shared goods were “distributed to anyone who was in need” (Acts 4:35). They fulfilled that saying of Jesus: “Desire first and foremost God’s kingdom . . . and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt 6:33). They got the supreme value straight and sought it—the kingdom of God—and all their lesser needs were met; food and success and self-development were added.
But if they had begun by praying for their need of food or success or self-development first, as many modern cults suggest, then they would have missed the highest, and the lower would not have been guaranteed.
A great many use prayer as a means to their ends. If you pray, you’ll get this, that, and the other. That is using God, making God a means to our ends. “I have been using Christ, making him a means for me to get what I wanted,” said a minister’s wife. She saw she was off center. She surrendered her self-centered self, and hence, her self-centered praying found Christ, and with him, everything she needed. Prayer in the Acts began with God and ended with everything.
O Holy Spirit, I want you and you alone. All else can wait or never come at all. But I cannot do without you. In you I have everything and more than everything. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I shall try not to use Christ but to let him use me today.