Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. (Mt. 6:33)
Are we building a brand, or are we about Jesus Christ being built by the Holy Spirit inside of us? Hopefully we’ll never have the brand of the beast (see Rev. 19:20). Is it our personal brand we’re focused on, or is it the Son of God we’re focused on? It’s hard to build two brands…your heart will be divided. I watch Christian TV, and sadly I see a lot of ministry brand building instead of lifting up the name of Jesus.
Whether a brand or life in general, are we about doing the building ourselves, or letting the Lord do the building?
“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builder labors in vain.” (Ps. 127:1)
What do you treasure? Where is our heart’s focus?
Mt. 6:21 says where our heart is, there your treasure is.
What is our heart focused on? Dollars, crypto, bitcoin, the euro, etc.? Material possessions? Or is our heart focused on Him, the ‘author and finisher’ of our faith? Yes, we need money to live on because it’s the way our world’s system is set up. For the believer, though, our Heavenly Father is our provider, our source. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, no? His eye is on the sparrow, no? Is He not watching you, too? Does He not care for you more than these? (See Mt. 10:31) Hopefully our focus is on Him, that He is our treasure!
Yes, focus on Him more, but how? How in this crazy world we live in do we get our focus adjusted if we need to? Wear spiritual blinders if necessary!
In a world and society that may tempt us with ‘get more, do more, show and promote our brand more…’, depending on the level of our self-centeredness, some of us can’t get over taking that one more selfie to blast on Facebook! All the while, our neighbor is making a choice between medicine and food. I talked to that person!! While we’re adding pages to our Facebook brag book, others don’t even have a thing to brag about. Don’t get me wrong, sharing photos, etc., isn’t wrong per se, but what is our motive behind why we do what we do. More likes, more attention?
Back to real life, that person I talked to who had to make a choice between food and medicine had never had a Facebook. Her focus was on getting to heaven, and knew no matter what, the Lord would help her. He did, too. And He added to her food on top of what medicines she needed.
Does our neighbor have a need? Can we help them? Hopefully we’re sensitive to others and not all about our silly little brands that really mean nothing in the scope of things.
Life can tempt us to be so involved in getting, where God is about “adding” all these things to us as we’re about seeking Him and the kingdom of God, just like He added to the person I’ve referenced. Seek Him! Be about His brand, His character … wouldn’t we rather Him add to our lives instead of us breaking our backs to do it?
There is always room for improvement, no?
Father, help me become more and more selfless, less selfish, less about getting, and more about giving. Help me be like You much more than I am. Thank you for helping me be transformed into the image You want me to be, and much less the image of myself that I want to be and portray! Father, help us seek first the Kingdom of God, and we thank you we can rest in knowing all these things will be added to us as we do just that! We give you thanks for loving us more than we can ever comprehend! Amen