Your Kingdom Come

I recently expressed my desire to volunteer again with a secular program I'd given volunteer hours to in the past. I was saddened when I learned that they did not need my volunteer role to exist anymore.

Being sad isn’t a bad thing. I believe sadness is a tool that God gives us to give us energy and focus to think of how we can best glorify Him. It did just that for me…at first. I was surprised at how long my sadness lasted. I began to dwell on the decision. I began to question the decision. I allowed my emotions and sadness to take control over my thinking.

Why was this a struggle for me? I began to look at my heart and saw that I had an idol of wanting my life to go the way that I believed it should go (James 4:1). I had built this construct or mini-kingdom of how my life was supposed to go, and God in His loving sovereignty was not giving me what I wanted (James 4:3). My heart began to rebel as I wanted what I wanted (my mini-kingdom) and not to please the Lord in my response.

I think it is a common human struggle to build our mini-kingdoms (1 John 5:21)—views of how we think our lives should go. What kind of mini-kingdoms?:

THIS is the volunteer role I'm supposed to have.

THIS is the right amount of church involvement for me/my family.

MY workday/day at home/vacation is supposed to go in the order of MY to do list and calendar.

THIS is how my family/life/singleness is supposed to look.

My friend/spouse/child is SUPPOSED to respond in a certain way.

There are two questions for the believer:

What is the cause of your mini-kingdom building? (our idol-producing hearts)

How am I to respond when my little kingdom walls are taken down by a loving and truthful God? See Hebrews 12:1-2.

When one of my many mini-kingdoms I’ve built comes crashing down, will I say to the Lord:

“Have your way father. May your kingdom come.”

or

"God you have missed out on building up my kingdom. Fix it now!"

Pastor Ben