“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Matthew 6:33-34

We continue our series of lessons from b-movies to give us a stronger battle plan for the spiritual warfare we all face, with today looking at the pitfalls of things that suck life away. I always love the way vampires are depicted in movies, these evil creatures who lure victims to them, and drink their blood (ewww). It’s a very visual image when you look at it, this monster literally sucks the life out of their victim. It’s easy to watch these movies and giggle because the vampire just looks like an obvious bad guy, I mean who wears a suit and lives in a creepy castle, only a vampire duh. I think the crazy part is, this happens to many of us on a daily basis. Okay, not the creature who wants to drink your blood, but there are things in our life that we let suck our lives away. We put ourselves in toxic relationships, waste our time with things that don’t matter, and we choose to live on our own; we choose to be independent from God. The truth is, we need to seek what gives us life by becoming dependent on Christ.

This is something that hurts many of us. I had an alternate title for this post (Woah, like a variant cover on a comic? Kinda yeah!). I was going to call it, “Beware of the life suckers,” it sounded odd out loud, but the sentiment rings true. We need to be careful in life with the things that suck away our life, and often these seem like good things. Just like in the movies, the things in this world seem good, there are things that entice us through advertising and make it seems like pushing the boundaries is totally fine. Yet, when these boundaries are pushed and we make compromises, we can lose ourselves to this world. God calls us to be in this world, not of it (Romans 12:2). The verse I reference at the beginning outlines the way we need to conduct ourselves, we need to seek his kingdom, and everything else is under Gods control. So we have to make choices, ones that may seem hard in the short term, but in the long term it will radically change your life for the better. You see we need to be seeking after what gives us life, because we will find God in that search, we will be able to grow towards him and pursue him. When we begin taking steps towards him, we enter into his will for our lives; and nothing is better than that.

Let go of the toxic relationships in your life.

Last week I wrote about the dangers of going alone and the importance community plays in our lives. One thing we need to be careful of is the community we seek. When it is a life giving group with a common heart to follow Christ, this brings empowerment to our lives and gives us accountability. What we need to be careful of is the relationships we have that are not Christ centered. We are called to be a light in the darkness, so this isn’t me saying don’t be around non-believers, what I’m saying is that that cannot be the community where you seek life from. When it comes down to it, they can’t speak into you like a community of believers can. So many times we see people who spend all their time with non-believers or date non-believers to bring them closer, but you need to be careful, you need to have boundaries in place. Be a light in the darkness, but don’t let the darkness consume you.

Be intentional with your time.

It’s easy to waste time. For me this is my Netflix struggle, the ability to watch all episodes from a show without having to wait a week is fantastic, but also can get very detrimental. We have the ability to use our time to build ourselves up, we can learn new skills and spend time strengthening our relationship with Christ, but all too often we waste time. We become lazy in our career pursuits and our relationships with God, we have been given each day as an opportunity to make ourselves better and grow. We need to use each day, because each day is a new chance for all of us. We can start each day in the word and move in our day seeking opportunities to build us up and empower us to step into Gods will over our life. Don’t let your time get sucked away by things that don’t matter, be intentional with your time.

Be dependent on God.

We are independent beings. We like to do our own thing and listen to what only aligns with what we want in life. What would happen if you chose to follow God? Truly follow him, to be dependent on his power alone. We need to live with God as our strength, putting our confidence in him, rather than carry the weight on our shoulders. This is challenging for me, I want my future to be wrapped up in a nice little bow. I want God to tell me, this is the job you will have, this is what your life looks like, this is who you marry; etc. But life doesn’t work like that, we only have glimpses into what our life will look like. We need to trust God in all things, he will show us the way, in small signs. He will open doors that lead us into the career we were meant to be in, he will guide the way your life will look like through building your character, and he will show you the person you should pursue. I don’t know what your life will look like, because I don’t even know how mine will look. All I know is that I want to be dependent on Christ. I want my life to be found in him, and him alone.

This past week I had a birthday. The biggest thing throughout the day that struck me was the opportunity that is always in front of me, in front of all of us. We all grow older and our lives change with the seasons, but we have an opportunity. I don’t want people to look at me because of my age, but the spiritual growth I have. I want to seek the things that give me life. I don’t want to get caught up with the negativity that surrounds our world, I want to make a difference because I believe that the people in the world have been made in the image of God. We need to seek God, because that’s where we find life. When we guard our hearts from toxic relationships, use our time intentionally, and become dependent on God; we can attain life. Seek what gives you life, you have so much opportunity no matter how old or young you are, you have a chance to make a difference in someone’s life.

Seek after the kingdom and you will find life.

-Joshua Thomas