10/21/2023
How do we pursue righteousness, and live lives of true faith? Do we seek excitement, advancement, or greatness, and prayerfully ask God for these things in the same breath in which we are asking Him for a deeper belief and faith? If a preacher is serving in a small church filled with God fearing families, does he plead in prayer to become the pastor of a megachurch and have a television show that bears his name? Well, these things can be devastating distractions to his faith and the downfall of salvation for many. Instead, he should desire that Jesus lead him and his congregation towards sainthood, not towards fame, notoriety, or wealth. All of the world’s treasure and glory is of little consequence to God, and should likewise be to us as well.
“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
As Christians we abound in our lives; some of that abundance is worldly, but those things that really matter are of God, and our deep belief in Jesus Christ. When we grow in faith and righteousness, the other things, the worldly things, suddenly reveal themselves for what they actually are... unwanted 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 do we believe that we want from life, and what do we feel we are rich in? These will typically be the very things we are inclined to place before God in our worship; is it wealth, fame, fortune, glamor, or one of a million other worldly distractions? In such things we find snares that entrap and subdue our faith. These desires for grandeur and personal glory grab hold of pastors, laymen, and sinners alike with equal devastation. They can reveal themselves in a once great bible teacher who now teaches because people have praised his knowledge, a Pastor who preaches because people lifted him up for his persuasive ability to speak, and his appearance of godliness, a layperson who believes he “owns” the church because of the power that his tithes and wealth have brought him; all of these are false idols, and they are the snares and traps that will lead to death.
To overcome these temptations we should do what Jesus asked of the wealthy young ruler... get rid of whatever disrupts our worship, and then follow Him. It is easy to say we will do this, but in reality it can be incredibly hard. We all have desires, wants, and needs that are imbedded so deep in us that we have come to believe that we can’t live without them. We all have tumors and sinful obstructions that require difficult operations to remove, and we believe those operations might actually kill us if we undergo them. Faith, trust, courage, and belief in God is required to overcome these fears… do we have what it takes?
Learning the Bible, preaching a sermon, building a church, tithing every payday, all of these things can be done with absolutely no help from God, or without any need for an abiding faith in Jesus. I read a powerful statement by Oswald Chambers regarding this very subject. Listen to what he had to say...
“We do not need the grace of God 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 and rooms 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 and sought after figures at VMI. 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. He didn’t live to achieve this notoriety, he achieved it because he lived… he lived a Christ-like life.
As we read the words of Oswald Chambers, we are probably thinking to ourselves... “Yeah, but Chambers was famous himself!” What most of us probably don’t realize about him 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, but lived a Christ-like life.
Our faith isn’t about the great things we accomplish in religion or life; it is about how we live our lives. Jesus didn’t necessarily want rich followers or poor ones... he wanted to give His followers a treasure that this world could never provide them... eternal riches in heaven, and a God who loved them.
“"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 we seek our treasure? How do we wish to live our lives? Do we live a life of faith that is based on the world, or in a deep and abiding faith that is valued beyond all measure by the Lord our God? Are we fathers, and mothers, who go to work every day in a low paying dead-end job to provide for our families and then come home to tell our children about how much God has blessed us that day, or, do we teach them that God’s blessings in our lives depend on the size of our checking account balances, and that His goodness and grace depend solely on the gifts they receive?
True faith is not predicated upon success in our lives, nor on what we accumulate here on earth... no, our faith is far more important than all of those worldly things, and when we finally realize that this is true we understand that selling all we own to experience it is well worth the price. True faith is something we can’t wait to share with others, and give to the poor, after we have picked up our crosses, and are faithfully following Jesus.
So, is God calling us to do something similar to this today? Has Jesus asked some of us to turn down a promotion at work, so that we can follow Him easily, or instructed us to sell all we own? Is there something in our characters, desires, or lives that is standing in the way of righteousness, and keeping us from acquiring a deeper faith, or perhaps from experiencing the gift of faith at all? If so, what do we do now? Do we give up and go back home like the wealthy young ruler in scripture, or do we obey Jesus and sell all we own to overcome each of our obstructions to belief and worship? His ask of us might be big or small, but we can rest assured that it will remove the road blocks along the way to eternal righteousness, and reinvigorate our worship, and love for God.
““Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.””
Mark 10:29-31 ESV
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... please don’t take me 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 grace, and blessings, in the absolute least of what the world offers me.
Rich Forbes