Our Deepest Need

Matthew 6:33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Thursday, November 04, 2010, 8:48 a.m. – When I awoke this morning, this song was playing in my mind:

My God is a Righteous God / Patch the Pirate

Jesus knows my every word and deed
Jesus longs to meet my deepest need
He lives now to intercede
He will surely stand by me.

My God is a righteous God
My God is a holy God
My God is a faithful God
He will surely stand by me.

Jesus’ love has drawn my heart to Him
Jesus’ love has washed away my sin
His word makes me pure within
He will surely stand by me.

I have been reading in Matthew from the recording of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Today I read Matthew 6:

Giving to the Needy
1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Prayer
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Fasting
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Treasures in Heaven
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

My Understanding: I believe the Lord is using this song here to serve kind of like an outline of subject matter contained in these verses and that he wants to make practical application of these verses to today based off the first two phrases in this song.

Jesus knows my every word and deed:

He cautions us against hypocrisy and against doing works of righteousness to be seen of men. We are not to announce with trumpets our good deeds so that we will be honored by men. Those ministries that are conducive to being done out of the public eye should remain so. Obviously if our gifts or ministries are public ministries such as teaching, leading, etc., they will be seen by men, yet even there we must check our heart motivations to see if we are doing whatever we do to please men and to receive the praise of men, or if we are doing what we do to honor God, to serve Him and to obey Him, even if we receive no praise, no recognition and even if we are mocked and rejected of men as was Jesus.

This same applies to the subject of prayer. Obviously this instruction to go into your room and close the door to pray is not a prohibition against public prayer. The early church met together for public teaching of scripture, prayer, fellowship and the breaking of bread. The church was given instructions on how public prayer was to be conducted and they were encouraged concerning proper head attire for women and men who prayed in public. So this, again, has to do with attitude of heart and intent of purpose in praying where people can hear us pray. Are we doing it to be seen of men? Are we hoping men will think we are spiritual if they see us pray in public? What is our motivation? If this is a private prayer between us and God, we should keep it private. The other indictment here is that the hypocrites just babbled, i.e. they were just saying words so that they sounded religious.

The subject of fasting goes right along with the subject of doing things to be seen of men and to receive the praise of men. Granted, sometimes it will become apparent to others if we are skipping meals even without us announcing it, but that is not what this is speaking about. This is about willful acts of trying to look as though one is starving himself to death in order to gain sympathy or to have people think they are super spiritual because they are refraining from eating food. The point of these instructions on prayer, on fasting and on doing good deeds is that we not try to do them for men to see, that we not have empty forms of worship of God that are really just for the purpose of hoping others notice us and think we are super spiritual and in order to receive their praise. We should do all to the praise and honor of our Lord and not so that people will think how spiritual we are.

Jesus longs to meet my deepest need:

On the subject of prayer, Jesus said that our Father knows what we need before we ask him, so there is no need for great flowery or lengthy prayers. We don’t need to impress God with our many words and especially if we are just mouthing words. He can see right through that. He just wants us to come to him in sincere hearts and pray, not necessarily in repetition of the modeled prayer here in this passage of scripture, either, especially if we are just going through a form of prayer. The purpose of this model prayer is to let us know in what manner we should pray and some of the things that should be included in our prayers: 1) Honor and praise and adoration of God – Father, Son & Holy Spirit; 2) For God’s kingdom of righteousness to come into our lives so that God’s will should be done here on earth as it is in heaven; 3) For God to supply our daily needs (such as clothing, shelter, food, etc. – not necessarily our wants or desires unless they are his desires); 4) For God to forgive us what we owe him, and included in that is that we also forgive those who have sinned against us; and 5) That we not be led into temptation (God could never do this) but that He deliver us from the evil one.

Then, he instructs us to not lay up treasures here on earth, i.e. it is not a restriction against having or owning possessions, but rather to not make them the goal of our lives and the purpose for which we exist; to not make things our god in consuming our time, money, energies, etc. Our main focus should be in laying up treasures in heaven, i.e. in making a difference in people’s lives in caring for them, in meeting their needs and most of all in sharing with them the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that they have the hope of eternal life in heaven with God and so that they can be free from sin and its chains.

Lastly, Jesus addresses the subject of worry. Worry is another word for fear and the Bible says that if we are fearful that our lives are not made perfect in love and that perfect love (God’s love) casts out all fear. When we truly understand that God is sovereign over all things and that he has everything under his command and under his control, then we have no cause for worry for worry never produces anything good. It only causes us to doubt God and to give us ulcers or nervous breakdowns. Jesus said that if he can take care of the birds, he can take care of us. Then, he encourages us not to run after physical and earthly things that are only going to pass away. I believe v. 33 is the key verse here, which is why I posted it under the heading of this writing. This, to me, describes “Our Deepest Need”:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

While it is true that we need food and water and probably shelter and clothing in order to survive, so these are basic and fundamental needs for human survival, I believe our deepest and most fundamental need of all, which is why we were created, is to seek God and His righteousness for our lives, i.e. to come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through faith – repentance and obedience – via Jesus’ sacrificial death for our sins on the cross and through his resurrection and ascension into heaven. It is by grace we are saved through faith… So, our deepest need is spiritual and when we are fulfilled in this area of spiritual cleansing and have been reconciled in our relationship with Almighty God, are seeking his face daily, are daily taking up our cross and following him in obedience and surrender to his will for our lives, then all these things that we need will be taken care of, as well.

My God is a righteous God
My God is a holy God
My God is a faithful God
He will surely stand by me.