When you read about the kingdom of God and ask God to show you His heart, you begin to see a world far different from we’ve been raised to live in. We’d like to think that we get saved by believing that Jesus died for our sins and that He will make everything better for us. Then we get angry because we still have to deal with our life, and accuse God of not caring when nothing really changes. What are we doing wrong?
Well, are we doing what the scripture says to do? Are we loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind? Take a minute and think about that. We need to be sold out to God. He must be number one in our life, above our family, our work, and our personal dreams. If He is not, then we will never see the blessings of His promise.
Work this out first. Confess to Him if you have not loved Him heart, soul, and mind. This is the foundation from which your eternity will be based. And the wonderful part is that once you turn your heart to loving God, you won’t be able to get enough of Him. You will always want more, because once you get a glimpse of His glory and beauty, you’ll be ruined for life. That’s step one.
Step two is loving other people. This is really the hard part. People hurt us. People can be mean, forgetful, sarcastic. The first time we are hurt by someone else, walls go up to prevent that from happening again. Automatically, we are prevented from loving them because there’s a wall in the way. Jesus said to love them as much as you love yourself.
Confess your unforgiveness. Ask God to help you love the way you need to. Ask God to let you see how much He loves other people. It will change your perspective, like looking through proper lenses for the first time. It will take work. Practice putting others first. Practice being kind. Ask the Holy Spirit to release His kindness, patience, and grace in your life. All His gifts are available, so use them.
That’s it. Love God and love people. Don’t allow walls to go up. If you get hurt, take it to Jesus and give it to Him. He’ll take care of it. Just love back. Live like that and you’ll start to see life in the kingdom of God from heaven’s point of view and blessings will flow to you.
Another post on the kingdom: Salvation = Transformation