Seek ye first the Kingdom of God
"Enterprise First" was the corporate tagline coined by Jeroen Van der Veer when his team took over management of Royal Dutch Shell Group in response to the eroding shareholders' confidence when Shell declared that her reserves are overstated by 20% a couple of years ago. Enterprise First is to drive the future culture of Shell group of companies to ensure that all management staffs are driven by a common goal contributing to the greater good of the company, above individual departments and agenda.
In his sharing "Making Space for God", I was intrigued how Pastor Rennie Tan likened our "contract" with God : Our deal is to keep His house in order, and it is His deal to bless our lives. Also drawing the anology from Shell's Enterprise First behaviour, it gives a refreshing perspective on how we ought to live our lives as born-again Christians - that is to seek first His Kingdom Enterprise.
Consider Matthew 6:32-34 - For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Sometimes, we are too smart for our own good. This is evident when we find ourselves striking a negotiation with God on how we want to run our lives. Many times, we use God as a means to our ends. The "I will serve you, if you bless me" syndrome is all too common and there is a fundamental flaw in that. It is a flaw because the "if you bless me" part effectively relegates God to No.2. Sometimes, we are too smart for our own good, effectively rendering us foolish. Which is why there is Proverbs 3:5-7 as a reminder. What we need is a childlike obedience and humility (Matt 18:3).
Seeking first the Kingdom of God doesn't readily means that we should all quit our day jobs and dive into full-time ministry. As Pastor Rennie Tan rightly points out, it is minding about God's business is the outmost priority. How we run our lives hinges heavily of how we truly understand the meaning of how to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and how to love your neighbour as yourself. When we truly understand that, we no longer work to serve our lust to prosper materially, but to honour and glorify God is whatever vocation that we are pursuing. We set apart quality time to understand His word and to discern His voice. We are concern with the affairs of the church and care for the welfare of His people.
We all have our desires in life. As finite human beings, we may not know or comprehend that some of these desires may have a detrimental effects to us. Our Father in Heaven knows the beginning from the end. He has the hair on your head numbered. He knows you before you were born. He knows that we have needs in our lives. Hence, He knows what is beneficial for us. Knowing this, the golden key to unlock a life of abundance is to commit every desire, every thought and every emotion into His hands.
We are all employed into His Kingdom Enterprise now on earth. The portfolio (i.e. our live) which we are entrusted to needs to be streamlined to meet the objectives of the Enterprise. No more wayward "pet projects" that takes precedence over the Enterprise. Only when we have a mindset of "God First", only when we say "Thy will be done", then it will be revealed to us the riches of His Kingdom.
posted by Mel-Vern @ 11:50 PM
1 Comments:
Just dropping a few lines to encourage you to keep thinking and to keep writing. It can sometimes feel very lonely to be a thinking Christian, as if it's an oxymoron ... fear not. You are not alone.
One comment though, I know you try to pack a lot in because your articles are long, but the font size is not helpful for reading such long articles.
Keeping blogs a little shorter might encourage wider readership, you think? People are more familiar with newsbitz in these days. But then again, that's not necessarily a good thing.
Keep up the good job!
Post a Comment
<< Home