How to Find the Pearls
This coming Friday will be the first episode in my new season of podcasts. Season Five is entitled “Pearls of Great Price.” Episode One, entitled “On the Hunt,” is based on Jesus’s parable about the merchant who sold all he had to invest in a pearl of great price. The Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus tells us, is like that merchant who saw in that pearl something worth trading everything else in his life to possess.
But the question for those of us seeking the pearls of God’s Kingdom, His wisdom and ways, is where do we start? I’ll be answering that question in the upcoming episode, but for now, I’d like to share a few thoughts about the mindset we need, and the perspective or worldview necessary to guide us in our search.
Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may discern God’s good, perfect, and acceptable will for our lives.
It’s easy to become conformed to the ways and wisdom of this world. It happens quite naturally. But when Jesus showed up, one of the first things he said was that those who would recognize and walk in the ways of God’s Kingdom needed to change their thinking patterns.
“Repent,” or literally, “think differently,” Jesus said, “for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
Sadly, repentance has become a religious, “Christian” word that tends to be used in the context of what we do, or rather don’t do, rather than how we think about and see our lives and world. The truth is as we begin to see our world through God’s eyes, we begin to live and act differently. But it all starts in our hearts and minds. Attitude shapes behavior.
Discovering the pearls of God’s Kingdom, and learning to see our world through the wisdom and ways of God begins when we reorient our thinking. That’s why Jesus began his most famous sermon, a sermon all about God’s Kingdom, with the beatitudes or blessings. And those blessings completely contradict what the world considers to be blessings.
Take some time to reflect and pray on this question - How badly do I want to discover God’s wisdom and ways? While you’re at it, ponder this question as well - Am I willing to believe and follow God’s ways even when they are so contrary to what I’ve been taught, and the life experiences I’ve encountered?
I can tell you right now that discovering God’s pearls of great price demands a radical rethinking of our lives and how we understand how things work in our world. Repentance begins with faith, or trust in what God says, regardless of how contrary it appears to the way our world works.
Repent and believe. Think differently and trust God.
In Christ,
Dan
Check out my podcasts from Church on the Edge and my books on Kindle.
You can listen to my weekly messages at Embrace Church, High Point.