God is My Provider and Joy

It is said if you have a nice house, nice cars, plenty of money in the bank, go on amazing vacations that you will be happy.  Is that true?  I heard on a news reports that the highest suicide rates are not among the poor people but the super rich people.  The people that are suppose to be the happiest by world standards.  Has this idea crept into the church? I have been meditating on Matthew 6 a lot over the years and especially the last year.  You may hear that the pastor will say that God cares about your needs.  Most people intellectually agrees with it but do they really believe it?  In my experience, I have found that people believe the Scripture in regards to the taking care of us as a spiritual care not a literal care.  They may even intellectually agree that God will provide physical needs but practically they think it all depends on themselves.  I even heard the expression God will help those who help themselves.  It is expected in America to be super successful and if your not you must be doing something wrong. They neglect to realize sometimes the Lord won't bless something in order to grow a person's faith.  He is doing a work is that person's life.  That thought doesn't enter most people's minds.  All of these thoughts go around in my mind and heart.....

My answer is... "Where is Christ in your plan and your life?"  Is He a Sunday God? Is He just good when health issues come?  Do you only come to Him for spiritual needs? Do you treat Him like a genie to grant you your desires?  Where is He in your every day decisions?  How often do you read His Word?  The only way the mind is renewed day by day (Romans 12:2) is by being in the Word of God and not for a nano second.  People spend so much time on their phone with social media and YouTube and they read a verse and think that is good enough for God.  How long would a marriage last if you only spent 1 - 5 mins a day with your spouse?  How great would your parenting be if you spent 1 - 5 mins with your kids?  Relationships require time and investment of oneself in communicating to grow and survive. The same is true with your relationship with Christ?  He is not fire insurance!  If that is what you think, then I don't think you should be feeling that safe.  If you have put your faith and trust in Jesus and what He did on the cross for you to pay for all your sins against a Holy and Righteous God, then Jesus should be the focus of you heart and life.  His Word is how we know who He is and what He want us to do.  God is your Father and He is a Good Father, but not a passive or a permissive Father.  Once you are His, He will care for you in the midst of the hard times and will provide for your needs.  I said needs, not wants.  You don't have to go on a mission trip to see God at work.  You can see Him working everyday when you put Him first and follow His lead; not expecting Him to follow yours.

I read an autobiography and biography of 2 men that lived in dependency on God.  George Muller is well known for the orphanage he started and ran all in the dependency on God and Robert Chapman  ran a home where he invited exhausted missionaries and pastors to stay and be refreshed at no expense to them.  These men's lives of living in dependency on God in everyday life may seem to most people an impossibility for today.  People say they had the "gift of faith".  Obviously, they have never read George Muller's words.  They didn't have the "gift of faith" they knew God! They were in His Word and they trusted Him.  I will say trusting God for your everyday needs is not for the faint of heart especially in the beginning of your journey.  Sometimes God can make you wait. You start by trusting for little things and then you go to bigger things.  Our family lives by faith.  My husband works, but is self-employed and we KNOW God as our Provider and wouldn't have it any other way.  There is joy and contentment because our focus and love is on the Pearl of Great Price (Matt 13:45-46) our Savior Jesus and  not the trinkets in this world.

What is the Christianity that Jesus Talked About?

What is Christianity?  Today it is hard to truly figure that out because the definition has become so broad in America.  In the first century church the definition was pretty well defined because the cost to be a Christian or the Way, as they were called, was so high.  It was literally life and death.  Today people are called Christians if they celebrate Christmas, are not Catholic or now it includes Catholic, if you believe in Jesus at all, go to church etc.  Then in the Evangelical camp you have extremes from extreme fundamentalism to the name it and clam it health, wealth, and prosperity.  Is Christianity something you can try and then if it doesn't work for you you can try something else?  The answer to that is no.  Once you are have come to the Savior and know Him you won't leave.  If you leave you never knew Him.   What is it that Christian people all over the world throughout the centuries have died for? It is realizing how holy God is and how sinful you are and realizing that God sent His Son to come to earth for the sole purpose of dying on the cross for your sins and mine.  When Jesus died on the cross he took the full wrath of God the Father.  He rose the third day.  It is putting your complete faith and trust in what Jesus did on the cross to pay the debt you owe to God for your sins. A debt you could never pay on your own.  All the good works that you do to try and get to heaven are as filthy rags.  They can't pay for the wrong you've done because the good works are not perfect and that is God's requirement. That is why God sent His Son to pay the debt.  It is faith in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation.  This is what men and women have died for through centuries as martyrs.

I grew up my Junior High - College years in a legalistic fundamentalist churches and school.  Not by my choice necessarily.  During my Freshmen year after attending a church that had an alter call and everything the pastor said was, "If you don't do this you are a back slidden Christian."  Yes you need to continually examine and make sure you are in the faith but it is not about do's and don'ts.  It is not about if you show up every time the church doors are open, or if you read your Bible everyday and in the early morning at that, or how many ministries you are involved in.  All of these things are good things in and of themselves but they don't make you a "good" Christian.  When God sees us He sees Christ's righteousness so all the things you do doesn't make you look better to God.   If you do them to show you are a good Christian or with the reason that this is what I am suppose to do then I think you missed the point. Once your faith is in Jesus alone for your salvation it is about loving Christ with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength. The things you do is not to look better to God or get "points" but you do them because you love Jesus.  That's it.   I believe John Piper has it right to spend you life finding pleasure and joy in Jesus Christ.  Do's and Don'ts places the weight of the law back on our shoulders.  The law was just to show how sinful we are and how desperate we need a Savior because we cannot keep the law perfectly.  The other extreme to the do's and don'ts is "I have freedom in Christ"  where they take that freedom to indulge in less than God honoring activities meaning sin.  Yes we have freedom in Christ but we are to use that freedom to draw nearer to God and further His kingdom not to follow the lusts of the flesh.

What do you do when you are in love with someone?  You spend time with them.  That is what you will crave to do, spend time with the Lord Jesus in prayer and His word.  Be like the people from Berea in the New Testament they were examining everything they heard or read according to the scriptures to see if it is true.( Acts 17:10-11)  The Word of God is to be your measurement for everything.   If it doesn't line up to the Word of God you discard it.  When reading be sure to gain the whole context of the scripture don't take verses out of context.  Think of it this way.  How you like people taking something you said out of context and then you tell them that is not what you meant and they twisted your words. What if they come back saying that your words can mean whatever they feel they mean to them.  That doesn't make much sense in how we communicate and we don't like it when people do that.  Why would we do that with God's Word.  Revel in God's Word enjoy your time in prayer with Him.  He's the one Person you'll never have to explain yourself to because He knows everything about you and loves you.

As you love the Lord Jesus you will follow Him anywhere and at any cost like the many Christians who have gone before us.