We get caught up in the day to day grind. The things that life requires of us take up a vast majority of our attention. We only have leftovers for God. We feel the need to spend our firstfruits on subsistence.
We still remember God. But now we relate to through the lens of this daily grind. We remember him because we need something from him. We ask him to bless the lives we have now, to take away our suffering, and to make us as comfortable as he will.
Daily I call upon you, O LORD;
to you I stretch out my hands.
It is good that we stay engaged with God. It is good that we remember him even if it is a little bit selfish. But we need to discover along with Job that God is bigger than our problems.
He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads upon the crests of the sea.
Because of this surpassing greatness we should have the same sense that Job has:
How much less shall I give him any answer,
or choose out arguments against him!
Even though I were right, I could not answer him,
but should rather beg for what was due me.
Our problems, even though we still have them, now seem small next to the greatness of God. Even so he does answer us. He is not aloof. He does come to help us with our problems. But we now concede to him the freedom to work the way he wants to work. It isn't about our plan anymore. Yet it is also not about an indifferent God. We are now open to the blessings he desires to pour out. He does pour them out and we respond with an ever new surprise and thanksgiving.
If I appealed to him and he answered my call,
I could not believe that he would hearken to my words.
Jesus is building his kingdom and all the blessings he bestows are directed toward that end just as every action he himself takes is so directed. We won't necessarily have a place to lay our heads. But in the kingdom we receive a hundred times as much (cf. Mat. 19:29). He may call us to leave without even burying family members. Even Elisha was allowed to do this by Elijah. But Jesus, unlike anyone else, has a right to this allegiance.
Yet we remember that what the LORD offers is greater than anything that is left behind. It is the pearl of great price and the treasure in the field. It is worth selling all that we have and are to possess. Let the greatness of God and the greatness of the kingdom he offers fill our minds. Let it be the background in our awareness at each moment, coloring each choice, and shaping each decision. Let us seek first the kingdom. When we do we have all that we need.
Follow Jesus, proclaim the Kingdom of God, and don't look back.
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