10/21/2017
How do you live your life in faith? Do you seek excitement, advancement, or greatness as you pray and ask God for these things in the spirit ame breath as deeper faith? If you are a preacher in a small church filled with good families, do you plead in prayer for a megachurch and a television show that bears your name? No, our faith leads us to sainthood, not to be millionaires; all of that is of the world, and of little consequence to God.
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
Colossians 2:6-7 ESV
We will abound in our lives, some of it will be worldly, but those things that really matter are of Jesus Christ and our faith. When we grow in faith and righteousness, the other things suddenly appear as they are... distractions.
“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?"”
Matthew 19:24-25 ESV
What are we rich in? These are the things we place before God in our worship; Is it wealth, fame, fortune, glamor, or some other worldly vice? In such things we find snares that entrap and subdue our faith. Such desires for grandeur grab hold of pastors, laymen, and sinners alike, with equal devastation. A great bible teacher who now teaches because people praise his knowledge, a Pastor who preaches because people lift him up for his ability and godliness, a layperson who “owns” the church because of the power of his tithes and wealth; these are all false idols. These all lead to death.
What I will tell you, is what Jesus asked of the wealthy young ruler... get rid of those things that you worship, and then follow him. It is easy to say, but incredibly hard to do in reality.
- Learning the Bible, preaching, building a church, tithing every payday, all of these things can be done with absolutely no help from God, or without any faith whatsoever in Jesus. I read a powerful statement by Oswald Chambers regarding this very subject. Listen to what he said...
“We do not need the grace of God to to stand crisis, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through the drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not.” - Oswald Chambers
When I was a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute there was a man who swept and mopped the floors of the stoops in barracks. He was a janitor and his life was exactly as Oswald Chambers just described, but his humility and faith over the years led him to become one of the most beloved figures known to cadets. His words of encouragement, deep abiding faith, and absolute love, elevated him. He is dead now, but there is a plaque on the wall between the two adjoined barracks buildings that bears his name and image.
As you read the words of Oswald Chambers, you were probably thinking to yourself... “yeah, but he was famous Himself!” What you probably don’t realize is that he died before his first book was published, and if not for the efforts of his wife we would know nothing of him today. Oswald died of Appendicitis at the age of 43 because he yielded his hospital bed to wounded soldiers. He died a relatively unknown evangelist.
Our faith isn’t about what we accomplish in life; it is about how we live it. Jesus didn’t want rich followers... he wanted to give His followers treasure that this world could never provide them... riches in heaven.
“"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-21 ESV
Where do you seek to have your treasure? How do you wish to live your life? Do you live a life of worldly faith, or in a deep and abiding faith that is valued beyond measure by the Lord? Are you a father who goes to work every day in a low paying dead-end job to provide for his family and comes home to teach his children about how much God has blessed them that day, or do God’s blessings in your life depend on the size of your checking account balance, and your children hearing of blessings only in the gifts they receive from you?
Our faith is not predicated on success in life, or on what we accomplish here... our faith is far more important than all of those things, and is worth the selling of all we own, giving it to the poor, and following Jesus. Is he calling you today? Is there something in your character, desire, or life that is standing in the way of a deeper faith, or perhaps any faith at all? What do you do now?
Prayer:
Father I thank you for all your many blessings in my life, I thank you for your provision, your love, your presence, your Son Jesus Christ, and the unwarranted grace you have given me through Him. I thank you for focusing my priorities on knowing you, and worshiping you with all my heart. I thank you for allowing me to demonstrate the way you fill my life, to my family, and all those around me. I pray Father that the treasures of this world do not become a distraction, or requirement for me. I pray that if those things are placed in my life that I will have the strength of faith to overcome their call to worship them. Holy Father, I thank you for the example of men and women of faith you have placed in my path, and I pray that you will teach me to find you, and your blessings, in everything I do for you... not in what I think you can do for me. If this means obscurity so be it, if this means poverty so be it, if this means being humbled before the world so be it, but if it means fame, wealth, or power, then teach me to withstand them and keep me in my prayer closet all the more. Father I am a weak man and you know my limitations... take me not to the breaking point of my faith Father, but have mercy on me. I will praise you all the days of my life, and find your blessings in the least of the world’s offerings.
Rich Forbes