Having it All

Our tortoise-shell cat, Susie, has a food problem.  Everything in her life is about food, or so it seems.  She runs into the kitchen every time we get a glass of water, and begs for food.  You can tell she's begging because she's yowling at us and trying to get up on the counter to see if there's something there for her.  The Lovely Joanne says we should send Susie as a contestant on that new food show, "America's Gut Talent". 

Jesus has better ideas for us as his brothers and sisters than to be ruled by our physical desires.  In Matthew 5, he starts to reveal to us the true heart of God. He tells us not just to avoid murder, divorce and adultery, and not to exact revenge -- even if it's legally available to us -- but to think as the Father thinks, sending out love, grace and forgiveness.  Those are not human motivations.  Our natural drive is self-protection, self-determination, and making sure we'll have enough, even if someone else doesn't.  But Jesus continues, in chapter 6, telling us not to pretend to be righteous in front of others as a way of getting ahead (in our giving, verses 1-4, prayer, verses 5-15, and fasting, verses 16-18).  And he wraps up his teaching of all these different ideas in verses 19-34 by reminding us that our true security comes from God:  "Store your treasures in heaven...You cannot serve both God and money...That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear...These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs."  The only way we can 'have it all' is by trusting in that security!

We can't follow that teaching by simply trying to or determining to; it comes from God within us, from Jesus living in us and we in him (John 15:4, 17:21-23) through the Person of the Holy Spirit in us (John 14:16-18).  Our new life in Christ, as we have been renewed by the Holy Spirit, brings us to understand and follow Jesus' mind in us, which is a mind of giving, not of self-protection, anger and revenge (as he taught in Matthew 5 and 6). 

So if we find ourselves filled with selfish motivations, anger at others, and thoughts of getting ahead or getting even, we can be sure we are off-track, not paying attention to the mind of Jesus in us.  When we awake and realize we've been running in that selfish human way again, we have to sacrifice our own self-will and surrender again to the Holy Spirit's work in us, letting the peace of God rule in our thoughts and emotions (Romans 15:13, Phil. 4:6-8).  Susie the Cat doesn't have any hope of changing her ideas -- but we can live new lives, 'having it all' in the security of our place in Christ and the love of the Father through the Spirit.