Kingdom Focused

I went to the same church for 14 years. I did so much growing up there; everything important in my life happened at this church. But recently I realized it was time to move on. I visited a few large trendy churches (and loved them) before settling on a congregation that worshipped in a tiny white building perched on the bank of a river. The searching process taught me a good lesson.

Church is a great thing; it’s an important thing. But when Christians focus solely on the church — as North American Christians can tend to do — we forget about the kingdom. There’s a difference between the church we attend and the vast kingdom of God.

When we focus just on church, things tend to get legalistic. We obsess over details such as our membership, our attendance, and if we’re checking all of the boxes we need to check. But if we are disciples of Jesus, the kingdom of God is within us.

This powerful statement is freeing. We spend time with Jesus and learn from Him, and then when we serve Him, it’s with a pure heart and a motive of love — not an obligation or a checklist. We then respond by coming to church to worship, serve, and fellowship with other believers.

No matter what church I go to, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I should seek to spread His kingdom every day of the week wherever I am. Ultimately the kingdom of God is within us, as disciples, wherever we go everyday, not just in a particular building on Sundays.

Lord, thank You that Your kingdom is within me. Help me to be a disciple who is focused on spreading this kingdom as far as I can in my church and beyond its walls. Amen.

Go deeper — Use a Bible search and find how many times the word “church” is used in the New Testament and how many times the word “kingdom” is used. Here’s a hint: "kingdom” is used a lot more because churches had yet to form when most of it was penned.

Dear readers, we would greatly appreciate you joining us in praying for Leah Kullman and family. She is a former member of our editorial team and is grieving the sudden and tragic loss of her husband, Graham, who suffered a brain aneurysm and stroke only a few days ago.