A while ago, when going to our pastors for counseling, it was suggested that instead of
focusing so much on the things we were doing wrong as parents that we should focus on
some glitches in our marital relationship. That if we would get some things straightened out
between us the other would fall in place. As I was meditating today on the scripture in
Matthew 6:33, But seek first of all His Kingdom and His Righteousness and then all these
things taken together will be given you besides, I realized it was the same principle. We
always seem to put our focus on the terrible circumstance at hand and try to fix them first,
when God says to seek His Kingdom first and all these things will be added to. In other
words seek Him first and He’ll tell us how to fix the circumstance, or the circumstance won't
matter anymore, or we’ll change and find out we were the problem all along. Whatever the
solution, the first step is to seek His Kingdom. So I did. Jesus tells us we can judge things by
their fruit, so I began seeking the Kingdom by finding out what fruit it produces.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

First on the list is love, what better place to go than to the love chapter in 1 Corinthians. Now
I know most of you have heard this, read this, or maybe even have it hanging on your wall
somewhere. As a teenage girl (not serving God) I would sometimes see this verse hanging
on someone’s wall (I’m not sure I even knew it was scripture) and I would think, “I sure would
like a man to treat me that way.” I never thought that maybe it was telling me how to treat
others and I also never put it in words that would cut so deep into my own soul like I’m doing
for us here today. Today as you read this, ask God to help you read it with new eyes. Make it
personal not as 'this is how God or someone else should treat you' but how you should be
treating others. Okay, here we go.

LOVE -- Love endures (tolerates) long (extending beyond normal, moderate, or desired limits)
and is patient (bearing provocation, annoyance, pain, etc., without complaint or anger) and
kind, love never is envious (desire for something possessed by another) nor boils over with
jealousy, is not boastful (exaggeration or excessive pride about oneself) or vainglorious,
does not display itself haughtily (snobbish, arrogant)! It is not conceited; (excessively
favorable opinion of one‘s own importance, conceived in the mind) it is not rude (rough,
harsh, and ungentle) and does not act unbecomingly (to distract from one‘s character). Love
does not insist on its own rights or its own way for it is not self-seeking; (the seeking of one's
own interest or selfish ends) it is not touchy (apt to take offense on slight provocation) or
fretful (to become worn or corroded from worry) or resentful; it takes no account (a statement
of reasons, causes, etc., explaining some event) of the evil done to it. It does not rejoice at
injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under
anything and everything that comes. Is ever ready to believe the best of every person, it’s
hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything. Love never fails. (1
Corinthians 13:4-8a) (All parenthesis are definitions from Webster’s dictionary.)

Below I have rewritten the above scripture in words I feel God gave me so I could apply it to
my life today. After reading it you may want to stop and work on this fruit before attempting
to go on to the others. If you’re like me this one alone could take years to attain to.

If we have the Love of God in us, we will tolerate things beyond the normal time we desire to
tolerate them and do so while being pushed to our limits, annoyed, and feeling pain. We will
do this without complaining or being angry and instead we will be kind to the very one
causing the problem. We’ll never want to leave the current situation to be in someone else's
shoes just to get away from the problem. We will never look at the one causing the
annoyance and say why don’t you be like me, I do it so much better than you. We won’t
always talk about ourselves and our own accomplishments to make people live up to our
expectations. We will never think we are better than anyone else. We will be careful to never
let our minds exaggerate our problems to become more important or worse than the
problems of others. We will go out of our way to always act and speak in a way that will not
hurt others and mislead people as to the True character of God living in us. We will never
manipulate people into doing things so we can ultimately have what we want, even if our
motivation is fear or seems right in the eyes of the world. And when not getting our own way
we won’t get mad and try to intimidate others into changing their minds. We won’t begin to
worry ourselves into a frenzy because things are not going as we planned and we won’t
become mad at others and begin to belittle them because they aren’t doing it our way. We
will not keep a laundry list of things someone has done wrong to us to pull up at any moment
so we can plead our case to others and sway them to agree with us and against someone
else. If we have the Love of God in us, we will rejoice when someone turns their ways to God
and is forgiven for the things they’ve done (even to us) and are not punished for them
because they’ve repented. We will not be swayed from any of these things no matter what
the circumstance, no matter how much pain it causes us, and no matter how hard the enemy
attacks. We will always believe that every person at any moment could suddenly have their
eyes opened and see God the same way we did. We will never lose this hope, period. If we
can become all these things we will never fail to touch lives.

Whew! We better read that again.

Now let me tell you a little story to bring it even more into reality for you. My step-son will be
graduating from high school this year. In about a month actually. I woke up a little over a
week ago with the nagging wife (that’s what I call the voice that bombards me with money
issues) in a full blown tantrum. She yelled at me over and over about income taxes, cars
needing to be licensed, the propane tank being empty, and many other overwhelming bills
that needed to be dealt with and on top of it all I have to help my step-son’s mother (who I will
call Sally for this story) plan and pay for prom, graduation, senior pictures, and a reception.
All of this and not enough money in the bank. My job was to find a place to have the
reception. I know a man with the perfect building and he was kind enough to say we could
use it for the cost of the electricity, about $15-$20. When I called Sally with this great news
she had already booked another place because she didn’t know if I was getting it done or
not. Immediately my love of God took over and I said oh that’s ok whatever you want to do.
NOT!!!!!! I immediately got mad and defensive. In my mind began the scenario, how dare she
go behind my back after giving me a task to do, what a great time to decide to be timely, she
never has been before. She then told me she had been calling around about meals and
cakes. My mind swirled with thoughts of the cost of all she was planning and expecting me
to pay half of. I couldn’t stand it any more, I blurted out that I did not have the money and was
not willing to go crazy to pay for all of this. She said it only happens once and that she didn’t
want to go cheap. Things did calm down and we worked out some details but I hung up the
phone feeling icky about the way I had responded to her. I, of course, did not feel icky
enough to keep my mouth shut, I had to tell others later how irresponsible she was being
wanting to spend so much of the money I didn’t have.

As I was writing the above definition of love this conversation haunted me. Starting from the
beginning I did not tolerate what was being said beyond my limits. I complained and got
angry and was not kind. I’m sure the thought of wishing I lived a different life, money wise,
went through my head as it always does when faced with these issues. I was sure that my
way of going cheap was better and I would manipulate her by raising my voice and being
firm to make sure she saw it my way. The problem was exaggerated in my mind and I did not
show the character of God. Fear of course was the motivation behind this whole interaction,
fear of lack of money. I was so caught up in the fear of it that I didn’t even think how I must
have sounded to her or that I might be hurting her feelings. And it wasn’t even that I said
anything that bad. I didn’t rant and rave but this is her son’s one and only graduation and it
must have seemed to her that I wanted to control the whole thing. And to top it off I kept a
laundry list to make sure when I told other people I sounded right and she sounded wrong. I
now feel terrible and will have to call and apologize. She has always been pretty reasonable
about things and I’m sure we can work it out. This may seem like a very small thing but I did
not handle it by displaying the love of God. And I’m sorry to say this is only the first fruit of
the Spirit I don’t show fruit in. We have eight more to go. It seems to me there’s a lot of work
to be done in the body of Christ. I’m going to start with me. I think I’ll end here for this time. If
you’re really serious about serving God and displaying His character to others, this in it’s self
is a lot to digest, maybe we should read it again.

Father, I pray that the fruit of love will abide in us. It seems overwhelming right now that we
could ever live a life always producing this fruit but Jesus came to show us that through
your Spirit, it can be done. I pray for Your Grace to come in and change us completely. That
our lives may reflect to others who You are. Thank you God, that this is the way You love us
even when we don’t deserve it.
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Seek First The Kingdom Of
God
April 11, 2008