In contrast to the attention-seeking public prayers of Jewish religious leaders, Jesus taught the proper perspective in prayer is to have secret time with the Lord. Jesus also gives his disciples the model prayer for the proper manner to approach him in worship, of which we should pattern our prayers sa well.
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After a great victory liberating Sodom, we find the mysterious character Melchizedek, both the king of Salem and the priest of the most high God. We consider Jesus Christ, who was a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who was much better than any Old Testament high priest under the law.
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Jesus draws the sharp contrast between the prideful announcing of almsgiving by religious leaders who had their reward of praise of men, and the way we should give to help this in need generously and in secret. We consider general principles for giving to have the right perspective to give generously for those who are in need.
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One of the most contrary to the world examples of how categorically different the kingdom of God is that we are called to love our enemies, to bless those that curse us, and to pray for those that despitefully use us. We are a great witness to Jesus Christ when we respond in the right way to those who treat us poorly.
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We see from the negative example of Lot the importance of four of life’s most important decisions: where to live, where to work, where to worship, and who to marry. Lot’s original decision to pitch his tent towards Sodom was based solely by his eyes, not a priority of worship and fellowship with the friend of God, Abram. Over time, it was a slow fade and Lot’s righteous soul was vexed daily from the consequences of his repeated poor decision making.
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We can rely upon God’s word, and his faithfulness to his promise and his covenants. Thus, the disciples of Christ need to follow the pattern of the Lord and be men and women of our word – for people to rely upon what we have to say, without having to swear by some other third party. Then, the greatest covenant of marriage, we must be faithful to that covenant before God, with it only being disannulled by the most extreme circumstances.
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In the sermon on the mount, Jesus cuts past a focus on solely avoiding external action of sin, but focuses on a purity of heart. We can easily let hatred and lust run amuck in our hearts, if we do not bring every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ. We need to purify our hearts, as Christ is pure.
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God’s holiness requires perfect obedience to the law. Even an offense in one jot or tittle (the smallest letter or smallest punctuation mark) is worthy of the Lord’s judgment. Thus, our works and obedience to the law cannot be the means of our righteousness because we would have to be perfect, which we clearly are not. Our only hope is Christ’s perfect obedience and his perfect righteousness imputed on our behalf.
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God’s children are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world; to shake as salt, and shine as light, not primarily to other believers but to a dark and decaying world around us. We let our light shine that men may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven!
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We will all have varying degrees of famine, leanness, and scarcity at different seasons of our lives. How do you respond to famine? Do we respond with faith, trusting God on the right place we are called to – or do we fall into Abram’s example of fear in famine and make bad decisions? Let us trust God when things get difficult because he will provide for his people.
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