The Golden Goose: The Solution To Seeking Worldly Things

Length: 8 Minutes

Sometimes, even though we know that we should be meditating on Jesus, our minds can get caught up, chasing after the so-called “good things” of this life. Whether that’s wealth, our job, other people, or any earthly pleasure. These things can be temptations to draw our mind from the Lord, but here’s the answer to keep you from getting caught up in the world.

The answer is to see the Lord as your source of every good thing, even adding all earthly things you need. 

When you see the Lord this way, it’s pretty easy to seek Him. Who wouldn’t seek someone that they thought was the source of everything they could ever want? If you saw the Lord as the source, you’d never look away from Him. Even when you needed earthly things, you wouldn’t neglect Him. Why would you? If He’s the one that adds all profitable earthly things to you, to neglect Him would be to neglect the addition of the earthly things you need. That wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.

It’s like someone seeking for golden eggs, but neglecting the golden goose. It doesn’t make sense. You’re seeking for something, but neglecting the source. If you’ve got a golden goose, focus your attentions there. Don’t neglect it. What you need, it produces. 

When someone is chasing the things of this life, instead of the Lord, it is a clear evidence that they don’t realize the Lord is the source of everything they need, even power toward earthly things. They’re seeking after the world for happiness, entertainment, security, and well-being. All the while, these are the very things that the Lord, (I say respectfully) our Golden Goose, produces for us. Not to mention He would add many of the very earthly things you were seeking! Whether it’s relationships, finances, position or honor. You’re out there seeking for something in the world that God adds to those who seek Him! You’re out there looking for gold, but neglecting the Goose, who is the source.

The problem is not that people need to be forced to seek God. The problem is, people don’t know that He is the source of what they’re looking for. That’s the only reason people don’t seek Him. No one in their right mind would neglect Him if they knew who He was and what He’s offering. Jesus said this exact thing to the Samaritan woman.

John 4:10 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

Jesus said that if the Samaritan woman knew the gift of God and who He was, she’d be asking Him for what He had to give. So, if you’re not asking and seeking, it’s because you don’t know what’s on the table. If you’re not furiously seeking after the knowledge of Jesus, but seeking the things of this world, it’s because you don’t see the Lord as the source of everything you need — including empowerment toward many of the earthly things you’re trying to add for yourself.

It’s funny, people neglect the Lord to seek earthly things, but when you see Him as the one that adds “all of these things to you” (Matthew 6:33), even if you need earthly things, you end up seeking Him all the more, not the stuff! Why? He’s your source. 

I’m not saying that the Lord is merely the source of power toward earthly things. He’s blessed us with all spiritual blessings, but that certainly includes power toward profitable physical things (Ephesians 1:3, Deuteronomy 8:18).

Am I saying that we should just seek God for His benefits? The problem is, people see God and His benefits as two separate things. God is those benefits. The thing we need is Him! He is our righteousness, power, wisdom, peace, happiness, health and well-being, protection and redemption, life and length of days, and all heavenly things. And while He is not wealth or physical things to us directly, He is power toward all these things. 

In Matthew 7:11, Jesus said “How much more will your Father give good things to those who ask Him?” InLuke’s account (Luke 11:13), He says “How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Why this discrepancy? Because His Spirit in us is the good things that we need. So, we seek Him because of who He is to us. He is what we need! Jesus is what we need! 

The benefits are not something that God gives you separate from Himself. All the benefits are merely qualities of who He is, being produced in your life. 

When people aren’t taught everything that Jesus is to them, that’s when they go out and seek it from the world. After all, if they need it and Jesus hasn’t provided it, then they’ll seek it elsewhere. But when you find out the fullness of what Jesus provided — that it’s all inclusive, that it’s everything you need for this life and the one to come, why would you go anywhere else? Seeking Him, His kingdom, and His righteousness just starts making the most sense. Everything’s going to be added. 

When people don’t realize that Jesus is the source of what they need, they look elsewhere. But when they realize that Jesus is the source, they look no further than the cross. Want to get people’s eyes on the Lord? Show them that Jesus is the answer to what they’re looking for. 

God warned Israel against forgetting him and taking pride in earthly wealth. Listen closely to the advice that God gives, which would keep them from neglecting Him for physical wealth?

Deuteronomy 8:13-18 (NKJV) and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God… then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth…

What was God’s solution for people that would forget Him, taking pride in physical wealth? He said, “Remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth.” The solution He gave them, to not be distracted with earthly things, was to remember that He is the source of everything they needed, including power to that very wealth! 

When you neglect mindfulness of Jesus for other things, you’re forgetting that you’re neglecting the very One that would add all these things to you. 

This is also why, when David had become very wealthy and honored, he started seeking for himself a wife. He saw Bathsheba and he was willing to lie, steal, and kill to get her. After he had done all these things in seeking her for himself, what was the Lord’s advice? He told him that He was the one that made David wealthy. He was the one that gave David all of Saul’s house. The Lord said that if David had thought it was too little, He would’ve added to him much more. What is the Lord doing here? He’s establishing Himself as the source in David’s mind (2 Samuel 12:8), because if David had remembered that the Lord was his source, even to add earthly things, he would’ve never sought what he needed from the world. He would have turned to the Lord when he needed something, and the Lord would have added the very things he began seeking after. 

David was looking for gold, but neglected the goose! He was seeking for things on his own that the Lord would have added. 

You can see from these examples that when people seek the things of this life, God’s advice to them is to recognize Him as the source of what they need. It’s very tempting to turn to the world, when you think God is withholding something from you. But it’s very tempting to turn to God, when you know He’s offering everything to you.

If you continue to recognize the Lord as the source of everything you could ever need or want, no matter how much you need physical things, or how much they are increased in your life, you will never turn away from seeking Him with all your heart. Why would you seek anything else? You’ve found the Golden Goose.

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