The simple things are most precious

:: Look again and consecrate...Oswald Chambers

Bloom where you are planted

If God so clothes the grass of the field...shall He not much more clothe you?"

  Matthew 6:30

A simple statement of Jesus is always a puzzle to us if we are not simple.  How are we going to be simple with the simplicity of Jesus?  By receiving His Spirit, recognizing and relying on Him, obeying Him as He brings the Word of God, and life will become amazingly simple.  "Consider," says Jesus, "how much more your Father Who clothes the grass of the field will clothe you, if you keep your relationship right with Him." (blog author side note:  I asked God "How do I keep my relationship right with You?"  I read further and here is what He said.  Matthew 6:33  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.) Every time we have gone back in spiritual communion it has been because we have impertinently known better than Jesus Christ.  We have allowed the cares of the world to come in, and have forgotten the "much more" of our Heavenly Father.

"Behold the fowls of the air"--their main aim is to obey the principle of life that is in them and God looks after them.  Jesus says that if you are rightly related to Him and obey His Spirit that is in you, God will look after your "feathers."

"Consider the lilies of the field"--they grow where they are put.  Many of us refuse to grow where we are put, consequently we take root nowhere.  Jesus says that if we obey the life God has given us, He will look after all the other things.  Has Jesus Christ told us a lie?  If we are not experiencing the "much more," it is because we are not obeying the life God has given us, we are taken up with confusing considerations.  How much time have we taken worrying God with questions when we should have been absolutely free to concentrate on His work?  Consecration means the continual separating of myself to one particular thing.  We cannot consecrate once and for all.  Am I continually separating myself to consider God every day of my life?

Everytime I turn around this year I'm stumbling over the "simple."  God really, really, really wants me to "get it" this time and I firmly believe that my moment of painstaking honesty with Him, in December 2005, was the beginning of wisdom.  I had finally come to the end of myself, nothing was working anymore, poor decisions had been made, and I could no longer trust myself  so I gave up, cried uncle, however you want to put it.  It was then that the message of simplicity came forth.  "Put down your roots Sherri.  Stop looking forward for more and look to Me for much more.  It's time to stop be dissatisfied, discontented and disappointed.  Your expectations are set on the wrong person.  Set them on Me and not on humans."

It really is so simple you know.  Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all my needs will be added unto me.  He will clothe me with so much more than He feeds the birds, or clothes the grass of the field or watches over how the lilies of the field grow.  Neither of these things either sow or reap, toil or spin yet God's word promises that He will clothe them.  He will clothe us even better than Solomon in all his glory was arrayed, better than He cares for the birds of the air or the lilies and grasses of the field. 

How can we be of little faith when His promise is so clear, so simple, so true?  Probably it has to do with us NOT seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. 

So...stop what you are doing this very moment and consider ... do you want the "much more" that God has to offer?  It's a pretty simple question.  However, it's the answer where we get hung up. 

I am going to choose a simple yes.  Won't you join me?  If so, let us pray....

"Heavenly Father, help me to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness.  Give me the grace and the courage to walk the path you set before me, to put down my roots and to grow where you've planted me.  Help me to remember to consecrate myself to consider you each day, and may I have the grace to receive the "much more" you want to give.  Let your will be done in my life.  In Jesus Name, Amen."

Living Simply and for Him,

Sherri