What Are You Trusting In?

My Utmost For His Highest

‘The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life. “. . . do not worry about your life. . .” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed— no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Don’t make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God.”’ CHAMBERS

I heard a great sermon yesterday about world views … how we interpret life, …. how we live and what we believe is based upon our world view.  That is really what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 6.  Are we willing to put the full weight of our trust on God or do we rely on something else .. maybe as a plan B. The principle is that we should not partially trust God … Why did Jesus address this?  Because He knew it would be a problem for us.  That we would want to trust, not completely in God, but in God + something else.

Jesus said  "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches or material wealth).”(Matthew 6:24)  Jesus spoke number of times about this pitfall .. the Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18) and the parable of the man building bigger barns (Luke 12) come to mind.  How does that apply to us?  Like Chambers suggests .. We are not told that we should do nothing that God will do everything .. but we are to look to God as our source of everything .. give Him the glory and not rely on some other source … If you find yourself saying .. I know what God said… but …. That is a pretty good indication that you are serving two masters.  You are double minded …  ‘[…] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.’(James 1:8)

Imagine that the God who created you, knew what was best for you and told you … all you had to do was trust Him and do what He said was best.  That is what He told Adam and Eve.  Do you remember how that worked for them?  If the first humans had a problem with it .. what makes you think that you won’t?  Or more correctly .. aren’t.  The struggle between world views starts when we accept Jesus and receive His Spirit .. (2 Corinthians 5:17).  It’s not like you had 100% trust in God and then somehow it became corrupted.  When you were born, you had a corrupted world view and then Jesus came into your life and you gained a new perspective.  That doesn’t mean that you immediately shed what you used to believe and trust in.  There is now contention within you .. your new life in Christ and your old nature are at odds with each other.

For many Christians .. they just live with it.  They believe that trusting in something other than God is normal.  They really don’t worry about what God thinks of it .. they should!  So what does God say about that way of living?  …  nothing good!  I could probably write a book on this subject .. but will resist the temptation …

The way that you grow in your faith and trust in God is by drawing near to him, meditating on the Word, and being intentional in your actions. The more you pursue God, the more spiritually aware or sensitive you become.  In that heightened spiritual awareness you will see the choices more clearly. Every day you have opportunity to place your trust in God.  Read Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 20:7 and Joshua 24:15 …

‘Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.’ (James 1:16-22)

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)