Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)We love promises like these. We really do. We write songs about them. We put them on plaques to hang in our houses. We put them on t-shirts. Really, really great promises.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? (Rom 8:31)
"Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matt 6:33)
The question, of course, is, despite all the fawning we might do over them, do we really believe them? You see, if it is true that what we truly believe is displayed in what we actually do, there is a problem here. I mean, we gladly quote and claim that He is greater than the world, and yet we muddle about in the world with anxiety and depression and fear. We boldly sing, "If God is for us, who can be against us?", but we could easily make a list of people and things to answer that question. And, truly, while we love the promise that He will provide if we seek His kingdom, we're still seeking to provide for ourselves in case He doesn't. "We'll get to seeking the kingdom, Lord, when we get a break from making sure we're properly supplied."
Jesus followed up that last promise about "all these things will be added to you" with "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matt 6:34) What, then, are you going to believe? What, then, are you going to do? Will you praise and worship God on Sunday and worry and work the rest of the week to make up for any feared deficiency in God's ability or willingness to provide what He promises? Or will you "overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Rom 8:37)? We like those kinds of promises, but what do we really believe?
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