Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” ~ Luke 12:32
As I prepared for my Sunday morning group, I read through the passage, same as I always do, and somehow this verse stood out to me as we read the chapter out loud in class. There’s something about reading out loud that makes a person have to slow down and hear really hear every word. I can study commentaries and analyze it in Greek, but something about hearing it out loud reads deeper.
“Fear not, little flock.”
When is the last time you read Psalm 23? “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… He leads me beside still waters.”
The Lord is our shepherd and He’s leading us. And now, as we’re a part of His “little flock,” we’re told not to be afraid. He’s got this. He’s bigger than anything you’re facing, anything we can dream up to worry about.
Why are we told not to fear? Be careful not to take words out of context. It is never okay to pull a verse out and create a theology on that one verse alone. Out of context, this sounds like prosperity gospel. Let’s not go there. That’s not what ‘kingdom’ means anyway.
This is at the end of Jesus’s teaching on not worrying. In Luke 12:13-21, Jesus tells a parable about a man who stored up a great amount of wealth and put his security in that wealth. He worked hard for it and right as he was poised to relax in the benefits of that wealth, that mean died. Tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us. I’ve known too many young people who unexpectedly deal with car accidents and cancer.
Instead of worrying about our stuff, Jesus then goes into a long teaching on how God takes care of the birds and the flowers. God values us infinitely more than those things. God knows we need clothes and food. If He can provide for the birds and the flowers, just how much more will He take care of us?
“Seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you (Luke 12:31).”
So instead of seeking wealth, we’re supposed to seek His kingdom. But what does that look like?
“Kingdom living” is one of those Christian phrases that means about the same as “live for God.” Ummm…yeah, and what does that mean? I can’t give you a formula. When I was a brand-new Christian in college, I was told that seeking the kingdom meant among other things, having a “quiet time” that lasted a specific number of minutes each morning, and that it had to be in the morning. Life became a list of rules.
God is more creative than that.
He made each of us unique. There is no one just like you, nor has there ever been anyone just like you in all of history. Seeking the kingdom is going to look different for each of us as we pray and read the Bible. Seeking Him means spending time listening to Him through His word as often as possible, daily if you can, but not in a legalistic way. I honestly don’t have a set time of the day when I sit down and read my Bible. Perhaps that makes me a rule breaker, but I pull out my Bible during a quiet moment mid-morning.
That’s our side of kingdom living: a life of prayer and learning His Word. What’s God’s side? He’s promising to take care of us. The verse above, Luke 12:32, says that God desires to give us the kingdom. This is right after He promises that He’ll take more care of us than He does the birds and the flowers. He’s going to take care of us. That probably won’t look like how we think it should. He’s going to fill us with peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and all the other fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5. That’s the kingdom.
But it’s not a “if you do you’re part, I’ll do mine” type of thing. If Christ is your Savior, you’re already a part of the kingdom. Prayer and reading the Bible are like cleaning your glasses. We’ll see the kingdom more clearly, the kingdom He’s desiring to give us, if we seek Him above everything else.
So don’t be afraid, little flock (I love that reference to God as the Shepherd!), don’t be afraid to let go of earthy things, of wealth, of things that wear out and rot. Let it go. God will take care of you. He wants to give you the kingdom, which is worth infinitely more than any earthly palace.