Written by Theodyssey, an organization that helps people encounter God and be radically changed by the truth of His love. This is an excerpt from their study “When We Pray.”
Whether we realize it or not, we all live under the influence of a kingdom. Something – or someone – shapes our choices, directs our desires, and governs what we pursue. Everybody worships . . . the only choice is what to worship.Even those who love God can still find their hearts pulled toward other allegiances – success, comfort, approval, control. These desires may begin as good things, but they can quietly become ultimate things. And they start to rule us – and without realizing it, we’ve built our own cage. There is no avoiding the fact that we live at the mercy of our ideas. This is never more true than with our ideas about God.Our inner world governs our outer life. What we believe about God and ourselves — and about what makes life worthwhile — shapes the kind of people we become. The Kingdom of God reorders our loyalties. It is radically upside-down. Jesus redefines greatness as servanthood, blessedness as spiritual poverty, and wholeness as dependence. His Kingdom isn’t built on striving or status, but on surrender. That’s why this can’t just be about trying harder — we must ask God to change our hearts. It’s why we must repent and change the way we think. Every day, we choose — and we live according to what we believe matters most…Many of us long for the fruit of the Kingdom – justice, peace, mercy – but struggle with the cost of surrendering to the King. But we cannot have the Kingdom without the King.
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. [Matthew 6:24]
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