A discovery

It is such a blessing when we take time to spend time with the Lord. Today I spent a bit of time in prayer and the Word. It was difficult to carve out the time and very inconvenient on multiple levels- it would take too long to go into this. As I painfully (even foolishly) set aside the time I thought of the verse that says, "Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" and "anyone who loves (insert person of choice) more than me is not worthy of me".

Along with those verses, for some reason the verse in Matthew 11:12 has been going through my head all day today long before this devotional time. The verse says, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." I was curious about the meaning of this so at the outset of my devotional time I went to http://www.studylight.org and read what a couple of Bible commentaries had to say about this. There were a couple of useful explanations of this verse:

Adam Clarke's commentary had this to say, "The tax-gatherers and heathens, whom the scribes and Pharisees think have no right to the kingdom of the Messiah, filled with holy zeal and earnestness, seize at once on the proffered mercy of the Gospel, and so take the kingdom as by force from those learned doctors who claimed for themselves the chiefest places in that kingdom. Christ himself said, The tax-gatherers and harlots go before you into the kingdom of God. See the parallel place, Luke 7:28-30. He that will take, get possession of the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and spiritual joy, must be in earnest: all hell will oppose him in every step he takes; and if a man be not absolutely determined to give up his sins and evil companions, and have his soul saved at all hazards, and at every expense, he will surely perish everlastingly. This requires a violent earnestness."

John Lightfoot's commentary said this, "[The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.] And these words also make for the praise of John(he is speaking of John the Baptist)That he was a very eminent prophet, and of no ordinary mission or authority, these things evince; that from his preaching, the kingdom of heaven took its beginning, and it was so crowded into by infinite multitudes, as if they would take and seize upon the kingdom by violence. The divine warmth of the people in betaking themselves thither by such numberless crowds, and with so exceeding a zeal, sufficiently argued the divine worth both of the teacher and of his doctrine."

Both commentaries refer to the wholehearted committedness required of those who will come into the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus. Both commentaries explain that the "violence" he is talking about is the zeal and abandonment with which we must grasp the Kingdom of God at all costs. But its more than that... we must continually lay hold of Christ with this same sacrificial "violence" and radical devotion.

So, it turns out that I was having to resort to radical and inconvenient means to spend time with God today and the Spirit had been having just the right verse float around in my mind today so that I would study this during my devotion. Praise God for his leading. I went ahead and resolved to spend a full session with the Lord due to this teaching and lay aside anything else that could get in the way.

After my Matthew 11:12 study I moved on to praying and reading my Psalm of the day which was Psalm 91. A verse stood out to me for the first time in this famous passage, verse 14, "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name." The part that particularly spoke to me was where it said "set his love upon me" (NKJV). That really fits with the whole theme of the day of violently setting ourselves to grasp the Kingdom of God- and Christ himself but it has a new angle- its not just the Kingdom and rulership of God we radically devote ourselves to.... we "set" or "focus the time and dedication" of our affections, our enjoyment, and our love upon God. So, its the same radical commitment but we focus in this radical way out of love for God.

Lord help me to "set my love upon you", let me radically and violently devote myself at any cost or sacrifice to grasp your kingdom... and the relationship of love you have for us.

I love you.