“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’” (Hebrews 12:28–29, NIV84)
The series of devotions on the Kingdom of heaven is almost done. Today we find ourselves in the book of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews points out a unique feature of the kingdom of heaven. He says it “cannot be shaken.” We all live in a worldly kingdom that is constantly changing. Concepts and ideas seem to change as quickly as seasons and fashion. What was in yesterday is out today. The only constant in the worldly kingdom is change. The problem with constant change is that it cannot offer stability. Ask the world today what truth is, and it doesn’t know. Ask it why one thing is right and another is wrong, and it grasps for words. Ask the kingdom of this world why people suffer and if there is any basis for hope, and it will fall silent. The kingdom of this world has nothing to offer us because it is broken and corrupt.
In contrast, the kingdom of heaven is unshakeable. It is immovable. It is changeless. Ask the kingdom of heaven about right and wrong, sin and forgiveness, suffering and pain, hope and peace, and it has much to say. Hence the author of Hebrews tells us that we are to worship the God of the kingdom of heaven with reverence and awe. Coming from a worldview of uncertainty and change, we enter into the concepts of God’s heavenly kingdom and find that which is changeless and certain. This is why Jesus tells us that we must seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first. Then everything else will fall into place.
The good news is that there are answers to our questions. There is hope for our hopelessness. There is peace for our unsettled heart. There is forgiveness for our guilt-ridden conscience. Everything we need is found in Jesus who came to this worldly kingdom to proclaim to us all that “the kingdom of God is at hand!” Jesus came to reveal to us the constant and unshakeable truths of the kingdom of heaven. May we spend the rest of our lives seeking this kingdom and living by its truths, and find peace in the stability it offers.
Peace!
Pastor Tom
www.firmlyrooted.church