Another Way

To keep listening to Jesus as He preaches the Kingdom message in the Sermon on the Mount is to be taken into the land of beyond what is required.  The boundaries of this land are between "You have heard that it was said..." and "But I say to you..."  To traverse this land is to struggle to understand the difference between the law of the tablets and the law of the heart. The first says this is what is required for Godly living and the second says this is the new norm to be embraced as a citizen of the Kingdom.  Living in this land is to embrace the radical as the norm and the impossible to do as the possible.   

While some may say the battles are fought as we struggle to control external actions, the real battleground is the heart.  What is allowed to take root and be nurtured in the heart will at some point express itself.  The first place of control is not in self discipline, or the human fortitude which says, "I will not,"  but in the place where what could be is growing, though not yet seen.  It is into this territory that the Sermon on the Mount takes us.   

Spiritual battles may be won in the wilderness of temptation, but more are won in the heart.  This is the first and most important battlefield.  What is decided there always prevails.  The Sermon calls us to be motivated and directed in our life by the love of God and absolute trust in Him.  "Do not worry...strive first for the Kingdom of God," says Jesus.  (Matthew 7:25-33).  Too many of our bad choices reflect our inability to trust God to work out our life.  This lack of trust ends up causing us to take matters in our own hands.  The Sermon on the Mount points us to another way.