Two
men met on a plane. The conversation revealed that both men had
spent many years in India. The one said he had been a missionary
for 25 years and had converted thousands of people to Christianity.
The other man replied that he had lived in India for many years
and never saw a Christian. He then explained that while he lived
in India he had spent his free time hunting tigers and had killed
several hundred. The missionary said that in his 25 years in India
he had never seen a tiger.
One
man was looking for tigers and found them. The other man was looking
for people he could help and found them. Neither saw what the other
was looking for.
What
are we looking for? We are only going to find that which we are
seeking. No wonder so few people ever find God, they aren’t looking
for Him. The Russians announced that since their cosmonauts did
not see God while they were in orbit, He must not exist. What a
silly statement to make. They obviously were not really looking
for God and it is certain that they will never find Him.
Jesus
has told us to ”seek first the kingdom of God.” It is a fact that
no one will find the kingdom of God who is not seeking it with all
their heart. Jesus has also said, ”Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that Asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
What
are we seeking? It is obvious that what we really seek is the subject
of our thoughts during the day. Emerson said that a ”man is what
he thinks about all day long.” The man who hunted tigers thought
about tigers and found them. The man who wanted to help people thought
about them and their needs and he found ways to serve them.
Just
what do we think about all day long? That will give us a clue as
to what we are really seeking. There isn’t much use in saying we
love God with all our heart if we spend all our waking moments in
the pursuit of worldly things. The man whose goal in life is to
accumulate riches will think about money a great c?:al of the time.
Wherever he goes or whatever he’s doing, he will constantly be thinking
about ways to accumulate wealth. With this type of attitude he will
no doubt be successful in amassing a fortune but that is a very
poor god for as Jesus said, ”Thou fool, this night thy soul shall
be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou
hast provided?”
The
thing we need to do is seek as diligently and work as hard for the
Truth, as the children of this world do for mammon. Many people
work long and hard for their goals and achieve them, even if it’s
killing tigers. Jesus tells us ”The children of this world are in
their generation wiser than the children of light.”
We really will get that which we seek. If we seek for glory, honor
and immortality, then God will give us eternal life. To seek this
will mean that it will become a consuming fire within our breasts,
we will talk and think about God and His goodness when we sit in
our house and when we walk on the way and when we lie down and when
we rise up.
Now
it isn’t natural to think about God this much but we will not get
into the kingdom doing what comes naturally. Paul tells us that
”the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him.” The man who sought tigers never
saw a Christian and the man whose god is mammon will never see the
Kingdom of God.
If we are really seeking first the Kingdom of God then our thoughts
are about God. We certainly will read our Bibles every day and we
will pray to God frequently. Paul concluded his remarks concerning
the natural and the spiritual mind by saying, ”But we have the mind
of Christ.”
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