Seeking Him first

After 50 years of reading and loving the Sermon on the Mount, I finally feel like I am seeing the bigger picture of it, finding the thread, rather than seeing it as a bunch of stand-alone wonderful thoughts and declarations.

Chapter 6 starts off with three “When you do… don’t do it to impress others… hypocrites like that loose their real reward”.

The three are:

1. when you give

2. when you pray

3. when you fast

Then the next session says three things about money and treasure.

1. Don’t do the treasure thing here on the planet

2. Have a healthy eye… be generous. Bad eyes make you stingy, and dark.

3. Make the choice, will you live for Mr Mammon (whose middle initial is “M” for Money) or will you choose to love and serve God.

And the final closing session is subtly a follow-up on the money thing. Don’t worry. Be something better than happy… be trusting. Food, drink, wardrobe. The lilies are lovely, the swallows are swell, but man alive, He loves you so much more than them. He is TRUSTABLE.

Here’s the trick.

Seek Him first (and second and third and fourth).

He’ll take care of the rest.