"Mine or Thine"

"O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard: which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved." (Psalms 66:8-9) It is pretty obvious that God is extremely patient with us; and yet, at the same time, He manages to get things done! The title of this post is more the product of a message I heard yesterday, but it seemed to fit today's message just fine. The message was based upon the Lord's Prayer, I believe, at least the portion that I heard was; except I believe Dr. Ed was using these words in reverse, saying, "Thine or Mine"; either way, the point is still the same: Are we seeking our glory, power and kingdom, or are we seeking God's? As I was listening to the message, I thought of something to add to the list, resources; as strange as that might sound, it really spoke to my heart, because my biggest problem has to do with looking at what I have available to run my life, instead of looking for what God has for me. It is a little more complicated than just material things, although they are included; it is more about our spiritual battles and our ability to proclaim the gospel message; both of which are things that we do not do in our own strength, although we seem to always try. In Dr. Ed's message, he was using the end of the Lord's Prayer, which says, "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever." The sad truth of the matter is that we usually start out seeking and using God's resources, but end up counting on our own, as if we have been given some sort of ability to manage things based upon experience and some kind of strength that we have gathered; when in reality, we do not have any strength within our selves, and we have never really experienced perfection. Basically, what I am trying to say, is that if we are going to be any good at all in this earth, we have got to be heavenly minded; heavenly minded meaning, He is our All in all!
"Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory." (Colossians 3:1-4) NLT