“God being who He is must always be sought for Himself, never as a means toward something else….Whoever seeks God as a means toward desired ends will not find God. The mighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, will not be one of many treasures, not even the chief of all treasures. He will be all in all or He will be nothing. God will not be used. His mercy and grace are infinite and His patient understanding is beyond measure, but He will not aid men in their selfish striving after personal gain. He will not help men to attain ends which, when attained, usurp the place He by every right should hold in their interest and affection.”
~ excerpt from a A.W. Tozer essay titled, God Must Be Loved for Himself.
“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” We should not seek material things first, but seek spiritual things first and material things will come to us, as we honestly work for them. Many people seek material things first and think they can then grow into knowledge of spiritual things. You cannot serve God and Mammon at the same time. The first requisites of an abundant life are the spiritual things: honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. Until you have these qualities, quantities of material things are of little real use to you.
And a little further on in my reading came this: "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing," John 15:5. I believe they are tied together, and I also feel that when the same things start popping up in my time with God, that I need to take notice. As May 17 is the celebration date of my being set free from the bondage of drugs and alcohol for five years, the thoughts of where I am verses where I've been come to play. Thankfulness for my freedom plays a big part in thoughts, as does how to continue and improve my recovery. But even in the natural review time of an anniversary it can't be the most important thing or I will lose it. Some will say that statement is dangerous. I have heard it said many times that recovery must come first. That staying clean and sober must be the priority in lives of recovered alcoholics and addicts like me. But that's wrong. Sobriety is a by-product of the relationship with God, by seeking Him first and abiding in Him, we will find recovery from our addictions and be set free from the areas of bondage in our lives. But the goal, must become, to seek relationship first and simply because of desire for relationship with God. It's OK to come to God at first because of our need for a savior and deliverer, but our motivation needs to change. We don't walk with God to stay free. We are free because we walk with God, and if we treat relationship with God as a tool to get something else we want, anything else, no matter how good a goal, it will eventually fail because we have become idolatrous.
I want to be a good husband and love my wife as I should. It's by God's grace that that becomes possible, because I am selfish without that grace. The closer I get to God the easier it is to love my wife as Christ loved the church and lay my down for her. But if I pursue God only as a means to improve my marriage, eventually it won't be enough either to keep my relationship with my Creator or my wife. Relationship with God can improve every area of life, from job and finances to family and relationships. These and other blessings are all part of the "and all these things shall be added to you," part of the promise. But if we are seeking God to get the other things, then we're not really putting Him and the kingdom first. We eventually forfeit. Relationship is the purpose. Everything else is gravy, and if we seek relationship with God for the sole purpose of relationship with God and above all else we can never be shaken because of what happens in our life.
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