First things first

Have you noticed that as people we often live in patterns? Everyone has routines that they go through, usually depending on the needs of the moment and starting with those needs most urgent and central. Take for example my routine of getting home from work. Without fail I do the same thing each time. I open the door with my keys, check for post, then go and turn my laptop on and put my keys by the side before heading upstairs. Off comes my IKEA record bag (very important, it’s not any old bag) and coat, then my shoes because by this point they have been waging war with my feet all day and have nearly won. Then it’s trip to the bathroom before heading downstairs to log on my laptop and checking BBC Sport and emails. Every day it’s always identical. If someone gets in my way I’m likely to ignore them. My routine highlights those things I look for first of all; first comfort, second hygiene and third social/intellectual (if you can call BBC Sport intellectual anyway). I reckon everyone has little need-driven-patterns like this somewhere.

And not only that but I think we live out lives in need-driven-patterns. I know people whose lives are dedicated to finding a boyfriend or girlfriend. They profess to going to University to find a husband, or they only go to youth group to find a hot girl. Others relentlessly pursue fun and enjoyment; if something gets dull, be it work or school or even people, they leave them behind and find something new. There are a wide variety of things that people can set their lives to gain, although those two things may be seen as maybe not so positive, there are many pursuits that people pattern their lives to gain. Provision for example. I know many people who give up everything to provide for themselves, to have food and clothes and a house. Or how about money? Who knows someone who has given up everything to get the kind of money they really want, to get where they want to go. Surely these things aren’t bad though? Absolutely not. There is nothing wrong with working hard for provision, wanting to be financially secure, or for that matter having a boyfriend or girlfriend, or seeking enjoyment and fun. Each of these things is fantastic things, important and to be enjoyed. But when we become ‘dedicated’ to these things, ‘committed’ even, I would suggest we are likely to run into problems. Why? Well let’s look at those two words.

‘Dedicated’ literally means ‘to devote wholly and earnestly’, and ‘committed’ means ‘to pledge or engage oneself’. Now whilst the words are not always used in these contexts, those who give their lives to one of the pursuits mentioned above, or any other, are often dedicating or committing themselves in the fullest sense. They dedicate their thoughts, their energies, their monies, their choices, their dreams and often their worries and fears. As much as these things can give liberty to endless joy and happiness, they can also, and maybe more often when these needs are imposing and insatiable, lead to much striving and worry when things don’t go well. In many cases these things can then become a burden to our lives and the thing that makes or breaks our emotions and happiness. They become the purpose of life. I know many people whose lives are at best made much more anxious, and at worst, ruined by these worries and life patterns that are primarily based on seeking these needs. Worse still this isn’t how Jesus wants us to live.

‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you’ Matthew 6.33, KJV

It’s one of the closing teachings from the Sermon on the Mount and it’s one of those verses that everyone who was brought up in Sunday school probably knows. Heck I can barely say the line in my head without singing the tune to it! But this often means that it’s among the least understood. Kind of like a ‘oh that verse, yeh I know that one’ sort of thing. So close to your face that you can’t really see it properly. So familiar that you can’t be bothered to look at it closely. This is a massive shame and also a huge let off because this is an incredibly challenging teaching. Essentially it says that your life pattern should be aligned to two thing, God’s kingdom and righteousness. The CEV translation spells it out much more simply:

‘But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.’

Two things. Very simple. God’s work first and God’s standards in your life. Does this mean that we can’t desire and work for provision, fun, a partner or a lifestyle? Nope. That’s what the ‘other things’ include. But it means that our focus and lives should not be primarily on these things and we should not build life patterns around them. This teaching actually comes as a conclusion to Jesus’ teaching on worry:

‘Don't worry and ask yourselves, "Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?" Only people who don't know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these.’ Matthew 6.31-32

But how can we be sure God knows what we need? This is how: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in Him may not die but have eternal life’. He saw the ultimate need and came to fill it by no work, no worry and absolutely no planning of our own. If he loves us that much why doubt his wise providence in other matters? Focus first on his kingdom and living right, He says He will provide.

This is a major challenge to me. I am a worrier. I like to have everything sorted and every eventuality understood and planned for. If I go away I like to have things packed for snow, wind, rain, mud, sun, global warming and ice age. I hate the idea of being caught short. This manifests itself in many ways in my life and goes so far as to make faith itself a daily challenge. For me therefore, his teaching tells me to trust. Trust when I make decisions. Trust when I follow what I feel God has made me passionate about. Trust in following each the hardest commandments in scripture. It doesn’t mean be irresponsible, absolutely not. Trust is not the same thing as irresponsibility. But I believe often times trust compliments responsible planning to allow God to work most effectively.

I don’t know what this teaching therefore means for you. Maybe it means changing the way you go about seeking a boyfriend, maybe it’s about what job you choose, maybe it’s about how you act around your friends. I don’t know. But I would challenge you to think next time you make a big decision, or even a little decision, ‘what does this say about what I’m seeking first in my life? Is it God’s glory and living as He wants, or pursuing my own needs and desires?’

To close I felt it helpful to illustrate a few testimonies of people who have been forced into seeming make or break situations but have chosen to trust and seek God’s glory first.

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Job was living a blessed life. He had food, family and wealth. All of a sudden it all went. His family were killed, his cattle lost and his health shot to pieces. Now he had the choice; reject God and his righteousness or put his earthly needs to one side and persevere with God. He chose to persevere and after a period of intense suffering, God reinstated him with more wealth and family than before.

Ruth was a Moabite girl who married an Israelite only to see both him and her father-in-law die. She was left only with her mother Naomi and her sister-in-law Orpah. Both daughters had a choice, remain with Naomi and her God and go to a foreign land trusting in His providence, or to remain in Moab and work to regain her needs. Orpah chose to stay in Moab. Ruth chose to put her new God first and trust. Some time later Ruth was married to an upstanding, Godly, rich and courageous man.

Daniel was a well off high profile man in Babylon. He had all he required in earthly needs. However one day he was tricked into a choice between his God and presumed certain death. Although he could’ve sought his own life first and turned away from righteous living, he stayed loyal to his God and was thrown into the Lion’s den. God responded by saving him from death.

A God-tracked mind

I have already introduced you to two of my favourite guys in the Bible; Joshua and Solomon, and today you can meet number three. He’s young, gifted, and when we get to meet him he’s just been captured and taken to be a foreign royal aide. For those of you up on your Old Testament bibliographies, you’ll know I’m talking about Daniel (and you guys should get out more too). I look up to Daniel for a variety of reasons, many of which I plan to write about in the next 12 months, but most of all I look up to him because of what I want to encourage us in tonight; having a God-tracked mind.

In Daniel 6 we find my pal in a position of some responsibility and honour. Daniel was one of a three person team that ran the empire’s governance for King Darius. That sounds pretty cool to me. Sounds like he’s gonna be having some big decisions to make. Where do they store the grain? How many chariots to make for the army? How many small indefensible countries should they invade today? I mean this is important stuff. Babylon was a big big kingdom with a lot of people and many many things to sort out. So for Daniel to be on a three man leadership team, that’s pretty good going. I imagine he had quite a nice salary with that. Nice car (or chariot), nice pad, probably a large plasma TV (or cultural equivalent). Not only that, but he was in line for a promotion. We are told that Daniel had so impressed his boss that he was in line to become the top dog. That’s blatantly a pay bump and a new office, with a PA, and an automatic putting machine. All was going well for my hero.

However, like all good stories, in came the bad guys. Evidently Daniel didn’t have the best working relationships with his colleagues because once they got a sniff of Daniel’s promotion they screwed up their faces and set about plotting (by the way, if you ever get to see the Veggie Tales version of this story, at this point there is an AMAZING song. I highly recommend it). Now I think it’s pretty easy for us to think that these people are really out of line people who can’t applaud a genuine deserved promotion. However I work in promotion and I can tell you that when it comes to getting a promotion (or rather not getting one) people will fight tooth and nail to appeal, or check assessor decisions, or review their answers, or just whine. When it comes to moving up the career ladder, people will do whatever they can do get ahead. So in truth, these guys plotting against Daniel weren’t that unusual. Having said that, the plan they came up with was both simple and genius. They tricked king Darius into signing a decree to make it illegal to pray to anyone but King Darius himself. This wasn’t so much a trap for Daniel as a shot straight to the head. It wasn’t going to fail. Why? Because they knew Daniel, they knew he had a God-tracked mind.

What impresses me most about this story is that shows that Daniel was committed to the Lord both internally and externally. Firstly, externally. Think about the processes his colleagues went through to think up a plan…‘what is the easiest thing we can trip Daniel up on?’ They searched high and low for a legitimate way to slander his name. They found none. They were left with deception. So they looked at the biggest thing in Daniel’s life. They picked his faith in God. Wow. This means Daniel was living a life that made it explicitly obvious where his true loyalties lay. They knew he prayed. They knew he trusted in his Lord. If my colleagues were ever trying to trip me up I don’t think they’d pick my faith. Sure they know I’m a Christian, but has my life around them so far indicated that it is so important to me that they could manipulate it? I very much doubt it. Daniel on the other hand had, somehow, had this abundantly clear. They realised he had a God-tracked mind.

Secondly, internally Daniel had nothing he valued more than his God. How do we know this? Simple, just look at what he had to lose. He was in the top three most important people in kingdom, he had found favour with the king and no doubt many other people, his reputation was sky high, he had wealth and comfort in the royal palace, and he had an amazing position of influence; a good influence, he lived out Godly values in a high profile position. Of all the things Daniel could’ve valued, I think the last one must have been the most tempting to relax his prayer life for. All he had to do with stop praying openly. He didn’t even have to stop praying. He could’ve just stopped following the Jewish tradition of praying three times a day in his room. Surely that wasn’t a big loss? Especially to keep hold of all the things he had. But not Daniel, his only focus was his God. It was the only thing that mattered to him and he knew that he wanted to pray to God like he had yesterday, the day before and the whole of his life. So on the day that the new decree was passed Daniel went to his room and kneeled as he prayed. He was so God-tracked that not only did he pray but he took his true position before his Lord. He humbled himself, in the process making it even more clear he was praying, the laid his requests. He risked everything. He made it clear that nothing mattered as much to him as his God. Not fame, not reputation, not influence, not wealth. He had a God-tracked mind.

I find it easy to both stand in awe at Daniel whilst removing myself from challenge but saying ‘Gee I’m glad I’m not ask to make decisions like that in my life!’ I think it’s pretty easy for us to do that with a lot of the historical aspects of the Old Testament. But the more I’ve thought about these stories and expanding them in words, I’ve realised that they really aren’t a world away from ours. On a daily basis I am asked the question, through a situation or even a direct probe, ‘what do I value most in this world?’ When I’m asked what I did at the weekend, or when I see or hear someone say something offensive and decide whether to challenge it, or when I choose how to focus my time, I’m continuously answering the question ‘what is my mind tracked on?’

In this western culture most of us have a lot. We have wealth, comfort and luxury. Daniel had been given these things too, but throughout it all he maintained a God-tracked mind and when it was all threatened to be taken away, he made his decision with his hands and his knees. I think Daniel lays down a challenge to us all. Each and everyday we are asked and show where our minds are focused on. Daniel was willing to give everything. Are we?