Seek First the Kingdom

A final caveat in scripture to this is that we must have our priorities straight. Jesus said in His sermon on the Mount, "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matt 6:33). Jesus repeated the same concept in His last instructions to the disciples: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit" (John 15:7-8). The precondition is that we must be seeking first the Kingdom, and abiding in Him. That way, the things we're asking for in prayer will be God's will for us, and they also won't be more important to us than He is. Any good thing can become toxic, if it becomes an obsession. (This is the foundation of all addictions--all of them take something originally intended to be a blessing, and twist it into a tyrant which ultimately enslaves us. Money is to be shared for good works and kingdom purposes, 1 Tim 6:18; but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, 1 Tim 6:10. Wine is a blessing to gladden men's hearts, Psalm 104:15, but drunkenness is warned against, Gal 5:21. Etc.) So in the same way, even if something is promised in scripture, it's unhealthy to fixate on that to the point that it becomes an obsession that enslaves us. Also, such a state is essentially synonymous with fear that we won't get the thing we so desperately want--and "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18). This is important when it comes to receiving what we ask for in prayer, because "faith works through love" (Gal 5:6). The opposite of fear is both faith and love, which go together. If we shift our focus from the thing we're begging to receive to the perfect love of the Father, peace comes, and our priorities will straighten themselves out, with no direct effort from us. 

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