Our Governing Desires, Beliefs and Priorities

UV 3214/10000 Our Governing Desires, Beliefs, Priorities

For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood, brass, and for stones, iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and their exactors righteousness.

Isaiah 60 v 17

The fullness of the Earth belongs to the Lord, implying that He is the source of all our resources. We can give to Him only out of what He has given us. In this uni-verse, the Lord promise something more precious and stronger than what we now consider valuable in our lives. The most valuable things on earth like gold is only footpath or pavement in the kingdom of God. There is no scarcity in the kingdom of God.. His is the economy of abundance. He is more interested in how we perfect our character and temperaments. We need to make His peace our Governor or ruler. We need to make His righteousness our highest priority. In contrast to Marxists, we do not give any credence to Material or Economic Determinism. Instead, we believe in Spiritual Determinism.

All the silver and gold in the world belongs to the Lord and He can give to or take it from whom He desires and when He desires. We can recall in this context how Jehovah made the oppressive Egyptians give of their gold ornaments as gifts to the departing freed former Israelite slaves. Hence, it is not materialism or monetarism that determines things in this world. We should therefore not set great store by what we own or do not own in this world. The Lord is able to make all things abound towards us in His time. We need to only focus on His peace or Shalom or salvation. Shalom includes joy, peace, eternal life, success, prosperity, good health, good relationships. We have shalom only in the kingdom of God or the rule of peace and righteousness and not in the kingdom of darkness. When we experience Shalom we taste the love of the Father manifested in flesh and blood in Jesus, His Son, Our Saviour.

Our peace in Christ is governed by the righteousness of God. If we do not do our best to lead righteous lives, we forfeit our peace. It is said that the most valuable things in life cannot be purchased for money. It does not have a price. It cannot be traded for anything else. The Lord gives us peace and attributes righteousness by the grace of Christ. Having said this, the Lord reserves the best for His trusting, believing, obedient children. He does not withhold anything good from us. In fact, He releases one blessing after another on us in the course of our lives. He gives our faith the quality of pure gold instead of brass – an alloy of faith, doubt, fear and greed. Instead of stubborn, adamantine qualities, He builds a refined sensitive nature that responds to the stimuli of the Lord like silver. Instead of a wooden inflexible intellect, He gives us a flexible attitude in the things we need to be elastic about while being firm as iron in matters of belief and principle. Instead of feet of clay or weak foundations, He gives us the strength of a rock solid foundation. Instead of shifting the source of our attention and affection to external objects, our focus is the indwelling Spirit of God who imparts the strength of iron from within us.