Lena's Comments 3-6-05 Matthew 6

I’m thinking this is saying the motivation is the important part. We can do deeds that people see, that they may learn, and the deed may stand as a testimony of Christ-like behavior; but our motivation should not be of one desirous of being seen for a "pat on the back" type of reward.
How does a person, a human being, keep God’s name Holy? By their own testimony of a pure life, true to God. Not a phony, not a put on. It is a life concentrated on doing the words of life they hear. Comparative to hearing without giving any response back in our actions. His kingdom begins inside of me, in demonstration in me. The world has to see His kingdom in power and rule in me, before they will join into asylum and change rulers and kingdoms.
These prayers are oh so personal to us and for us. We are not praying for some magical thing to take place, we are praying for us to be obedient to His words and to be strong enough in desire to walk in faith and to hunger for God’s kingdom and God’s will to become established inside of me 1st , so the world may know who He is – alive now and living now, in me.
Forgivness is a huge obstacle to even hearing the word that we may do the word. Forgivness is a daily practice and release of burdens carried. If we don’t participate daily our burdens become oh so hard to bear.
Vs 19-24…such huge boulders in our culture, to our faith walk progressing. Things get right in the way, and how to get things, get right in the way. Planning and thinking about how and when to get things and the time spent getting the means and shopping for specific things, get in the way….of God’s kingdom being established in me 1st. Then helping others establish it is a whole ‘nother story. I can’t even help someone else if I don’t and won’t take this kind of time and effort to do so – first, for me. Our enemy knows our weaknesses. We have got to recognize these weaknesses and see where he is stealing the time it takes for us to get faith, away from us and we must deliberately take it away from his hands.
We may spend a lot of time trying to get jobs/sales that pay us enough to buy whatever we want to get. We are willing to work weekends, we are willing to work overtime, we are willing to give all of our extra time to get this thing, all the while, we are being stolen from in the area of having the opportunity to build any faith in God at all, we are far too busy trying to get the things we want. We are really tired and any free time we have we need to rest, we need to keep up the possessions we already have, we need to tend our families (if we still have one after working so much!) In this scenario, if we were offered any opportunity to be a part of a fellowship of believers and hear the word for ourselves to build faith in us personally, we wouldn’t be able to, we’d feel we had no time to. The enemy has choked the word, our love of $ has choked the word, and our master has called for our servitude and we’ve answered his call (the master being the $). Then for some reason we get angry at God for requiring things of us we don’t have time or energy for, and we get angry at Christians who are seeming to pressure us too much with requirements "of the law". See how this works? We despise God and love $. It comes down to who or what is our source of provision and trust.
Vs 25-34 are the answers to the question a person who has not been trusting God would ask. A person who is transitioning from loving $, to loving God. He answers it all. It is simple trust with wisdom applied. See we may have a lot of excess baggage we might need to shed in order to have more time for the kingdom to be established in us, (like do away with that hefty car payment by downsizing, or move into a smaller house, or get rid of the direct TV, etc etc.), it will be wisdom applied to shed some of the baggage. That’s wisdom. If we keep the excess, it will continue to call for our attentions, affections and TIME. If we cut off the source then there’s no way it can call to us. This will be a true test of our faith and of our service to God, when we have opportunity to say no to money’s pull and yes to God. When that is happening regularly, you’ll know you’ve switched kingdoms and masters.