Scripture #4:Seek First

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

How could this one not be on my list? In all our lives there is going to be something we seek first. What is it for you? It may be something noble like the good of your marriage or the good of your family. For a few people it may be their country. It may be a long time dream or something you want to achieve. It may be something not so noble like your own pleasure or your own self-centered 

happiness. Something is going to be first in all our lives.

Create in Me a Pure Heart, O God

Counting down toward number one, this passage is a slam dunk for my list. Thirty-three years ago it sprang to life in me and helped set me on a new course. I had been a follower of Jesus for ten years, looking for ways to be used by him, but slowly and unknown to me my heart had grown hard.

I still preached and taught and wrote, and I still sat down with others and shared my faith. I still gathered my wife and children, and we worshipped God in our home. But I had become a negative presence. I had let bitterness come in and set up shop.

The Power of the Cross

Passage number six is 1 Cor. 1:18:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

The first book DPI published was: Thirty Days at the Foot of the Cross. Now some 200 plus books later, it is still one of our most popular. In the introduction, eighteen years ago, I focused on this passage and then wrote the following words that describe my convictions:

a Challenge to Husbands

The seventh passage I want to share with you is  Ephesians 5:25-26:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.

Some of the passages are on my list because of the encouragement and hope they give me. That has been true of most of the passages I have shared so far. But some are on my list because of the direction and challenge they give. This verse definitely belongs in the second category. More than forty-one years ago a most wonderful young woman became my wife (by the grace of God), but I know myself well enough to know that without words like these found in Scripture, I could have moved from those exciting days of young love into a very selfish and ungrateful way of living.

My Times Are in Your Hands

In my list of the top ten most influential passages for my life I would have to put Psalm 31:14-15, but before we look at what it says, let me tell you the context of it. If you go back about five verses you find David felt about as troubled as a man can feel.

Words like anguish and groaning are there, as are ideas like weakness, sorrow and distress. He pretty much sums it all up by saying he feels like a piece of shattered pottery. We would not be surprised to hear him say he is ready to give up, but instead come these words:

Through Weakness

I am taking a few weeks to give you eleven passages of Scripture that I believe have had the greatest impact on my life. We have talked about number 11 and number 10 and that brings us to number 9, and I cannot count the times this one has kept me going. It is 2 Cor. 12:9:

    But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Some of us seem to be more in touch with our strengths and others of us are more in touch with our weaknesses. Most of my life I have been in the latter category. Just naturally wired this way, I then developed a chronic disease that can make even the most buoyant and self-confident fellow feel amazingly weak. I honestly believe that had it not been for this passage I likely would have lived a life characterized by doubting, withdrawing, pulling back and giving up.

Again and again I have been confronted with various feelings of weakness—that gut level emotion that says, “I just don’t think you have what it takes.” But if there is a reason that I am not known as one who retreats from the battle, it has to be found in the promise and the spirit of this verse.

I claimed this promise when walking into college dorms to lead Bible studies; when traveling across the country to speak or to take on the task of putting together a book.  But I also have clung to it when seeking to lead my family and be the husband and dad I did not seem to have the strength to be. In my flesh I prefer for God to work through my strengths, don’t you? But one of the greatest miracles is that he works through weakness.

Grace to the Humble

For Scripture number 10 (and these are not in any order of importance), I have 1 Peter 5:5:

Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 

Thirteen years ago, I wrote about this text in The Prideful Soul’s Guide to Humility, and I still have deep conviction about what I said.

Passage after passage in the Scriptures make it clear that humility is the way to God’s heart. The proud find the door closed to his inner sanctum, but those who demonstrate humility are welcomed there again and again. By some measures of performance the former group may outshine the latter, but never mind. God does not receive us on the basis of performance. He receives us on the basis of heart, and no quality of heart is more important to him than humility.