THE BEAT e113 Give Us Today Our Daily Testimony

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.

Season 2 Episode 113

The Beat  |  Give Us Today Our Daily Testimony

Quick Take

Hey human, in this episode we discover a Jesus-rhythm. Matthew chapter 6. We drop-in on Jeremiah and what God first said about seeking Him. We rally around a transparent life. We consider daily bread. And our daily testimony. It’s getting’ real. Thanks for listening.

How has God shown his love for you today?

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.  

As a young woman I embroidered a scripture on a denim journal cover. I don’t remember that person very well. Especially the needle and thread part but I did take Home Economics (what’s that, you say?) I still love to construct things. Not fabric. I love to construct words that symbolize God’s nature in the human heart. Coupled with having always been a seeker easily attracted to the pursuit of something.

What did Jesus say that got my attention at such a fickle age?

Matthew 6:33

 

33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

Such clear direction from a 30-something man standing on a hillside. A man who had the message and actions of the long-awaited Messiah of the Israeli nation. A man who was not yet named the Son of God but by a few.

Practice Righteousness in the Privacy of Your Heart

In the first half of Chapter 6 Jesus defines what seeking first means through the lens of how we give to the needy, how we pray, how we fast, how we manage treasure. Overall, not being indebted to the outward appearance as a righteous person. Overall, Jesus was casting light on motive.

Jesus refers to “practicing righteousness” in the NIV translation. He is talking about our heart’s intent.

What he is talking about is a pure heart. Jesus had just shared this in chapter 5.

Matthew 5:8

 

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,

    for they will see God.

 

Give, pray, fast, treasure through our pursuit of his Kingdom, and his righteousness. Do it for him, in the privacy of the heart. My heart. Your heart. When we do we will see God, we will see his righteousness.

All These Things When We Seek First

In Chapter 6, after the give-pray-fast-and treasure section Jesus then moves to the inner battle of worry, anxiety, and the pursuit of the everyday.  Food, clothes, physical elements that give us earthly sustenance, comfort and gratifying acknowledgment from those around us, that we are solid and worthy. We hear it from human to human. Humans trading worrisome, anxiety-ridden stories on their pursuit of daily survival. Humans admiring human-to-human earthly treasures. Do we have enough to be earth-worthy?

How our free will and human nature put all of this together is key. Our seeking first (practicing righteousness) and managing “all these things” in Matthew Chapter 6 is a beautiful, yet brutally transparent representation of our testimony. As others see it.

Our daily testimony.

The beautiful part is the Jesus-rhythm that runs through it:

Give.

Pray.

Fast.

Treasure.

Trust.

Seek.

The beautiful part is the Jesus-priority that defines it:

Seeking the Kingdom is the sunrise.

Seeking righteousness is the first step.

Seeking first is the origin of our testimony.

How Did Jesus Live Matthew 6:33?

Jesus is the only human who walked the talk without the earthly earmark of sin.

This is where our witness lives. In the seeking… that when we say we love God that we seek to be with him in his Kingdom.

We seek to be like the King. By practicing righteousness.

What does seeking look like?

Luke 19:10

 

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

 

This is the purpose of Jesus coming to earth. To seek out and save the lost.

And this is what Jesus told his disciples before he ascended, called the Great Commission. From Matthew Chapter 6 to Chapter 28. From walking on the earth, to death, burial, resurrection, but not yet ascended.

Matthew 28:16-20

The Great Commission

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Our next episode, e114 is about persuasion, the WHY of our witness, the heart of it all. Spiritual growth.

Do What God Told His Chosen Exiled Nation To Do

In the book of Jeremiah the people of Judah were in despair, having been uprooted from their homeland and living in a foreign land under Babylonian rule.

What did God say about “seeking” to his chosen nation? Through the prophet Jeremiah, God told the Israeli nation that he would fulfill the promise to bring them back to Jerusalem. Now this is a familiar scripture that we apply to our lives, “for I know the plans I have for you…” – I see it several times a week brought into a contemporary context. 2024.

But it typically stops short as so many scripture billboards do on social media.

Because verse 13 and 14 follow with a condition by which this will happen.

Beginning with Jeremiah 29:10

 

10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

When we seek first, God says “I will be found by you.” God the Father’s words, that Jesus the Son fulfilled and brought to the first century Christians. This gives us a spiritual life of seeking.

It’s all about the seeking, the Kingdom, his Father’s righteousness.

Committing to a Transparent Life

Committing to a transparent life that reflects the personal process of seeking the Kingdom and his righteousness, proceeds an abundance of opportunities for connecting with others. More than what? Than holding out for the perfect conversation to hold someone captive to hear your rehearsed story arc. I love a faith story that draws me in, engages me, commits me, and rewards me with a heroic end that glorifies God. In a future episode we will talk about questions to guide preparing your story in the future, but Ineed to say it again; the daily stage doesn’t’ lend itself well to share this when we connect to someone.

Our witness is not built on our faith story. Especially if we are committed to “seeking and saving the lost.” Like Jesus. Through Jesus. Our witness is built on God’s nature.

Are we committed to this? The premise of this podcast: Whose life will change from your pursuit of holiness?

And, what does seeking look like?

Chapter 6 (oh, thank you Lord, thank you Jesus, thank you Matthew for this). Chapter 6 is a Jesus-rhythm, good for any day. I am committing it to my heart right now.

Give – privately, to people who need you, on this day.

Pray – privately, to God, and cut the babbling.

Fast – privately, tell no one, and fill the gained minutes with God’s nature through his Word.

Treasure – gather and bury God’s attributes deep in your heart.

Trust – focus on seeking His Kingdom on this day.

Consider reading Matthew Chapter 6 of Sermon on the Mount at some point today. Later. If you return to it today you will deepen your understanding from this prep. You will have a better chance to instill it in your heart.

Give Us This Day, Our Daily Testimony

One more very big gift in Chapter 6. Jesus gives us the prayer we should pray… beyond the babble he speaks about early in this chapter. And because he goes on to say seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness… I can see this in a really beautiful light. I have lived with this prayer forever and a childhood, but when I see it in this context, spiritual confetti showers over me.

Why? Because this prayer asks our Heavenly Father to take care of “all these things” so we can seek. We can seek holiness, seek the kingdom. Although Jesus doesn’t need any words added to this prayer, my heart can say it. I seek my Father, his holiness, his kingdom, his will.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:                            

 

“‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come,

your will be done,

    on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

    as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from the evil one.

And the closing as I was taught:

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

 

This prayer is about dependence on God through humility. A dependence that gives us the freedom to seek.

God promises to give me my daily bread.

And I ask him to give me my daily testimony. 

To seek his kingdom by helping Jesus save the lost.

To commit to a transparent life:

Trusting God’s Word to give us words.

Trusting God’s countenance to light our way.

Trusting the footsteps of Jesus to lead us through.

My witness on this podcast is hearing God and being transparent about what convicts me. What I take action on through God’s persuasion.

Being transparent about my personal relationship with my Creator, my Savior and Lord and the Holy Spirit. One on one.

Same for you. With those on your path.

The strength of our witness is in the seeking. God will fill our hearts with the desire to share what His Son has done for humanity to bring us back to Him.

Seeking the Kingdom of God, his nature, his righteousness, his holiness is how we come to a deeper understanding of our purpose. Our life becomes a wellspring; our purpose shows up in the lives of others.

Before we know it, we are sharing the Shepherd with all kinds of people. People like the ones Jesus taught, discipled, healed—the lost.

Can you hear the rhythm of Jesus, the rhythm of his Great Commission? Episode 114.