Monday, June 23, 2014

Planting Seeds of the Kingdom of God

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may  make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring  to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed  prompted by faith.    2 Thessalonians 1:11  NIV

   When we receive Christ, he gives us the gift of the Spirit.  The Spirit begins to transform our lives with the goodness of the kingdom of God and gives us a desire to plants seeds of that kingdom goodness.  We begin to discover that the good life is the good life. 

    This doesn’t mean that doing good in this world becomes a smooth ride.  Jesus said (Matthew 13:18-23) that when we hear the message of the kingdom it will grow and bear fruit in our lives, but also that the deceitfulness of wealth and the worries of this world can choke out the life of this message.  This means that if we don’t take initiative to  plant kingdom goodness in the world, kingdom fruit will not continue to grow in and through us.

    This week, set aside some quiet time to ask: “What good is God prompting me to plant in this world?”  God wants to reproduce his goodness in you and through you, so you can be confident that he will use you to be a planter of goodness.  Once you have answered this question, ask God to give you wisdom about what specific seed of goodness you can plant this week.  It might be an act of kindness toward your neighbor.  It might be prayer for your coworkers.  It might be serving the poor or getting more information about a ministry that interests you in your community.  Plant a seed as soon as you can so you are not distracted and then get ready to plant more seed as God leads you.


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