Give It Up

 

“We must not become conceited, challenging or provoking one another, envying one another.”

— Galatians 5:26

 

We must not become conceited (having self-deluded conceit), provoking and irritating others with who we think we are and what we think we know, and being bitter because of someone else’s success. 

 

Instead of living in the flesh (in the old sinful nature), live by following the Holy Spirit’s guiding. Obey Him. (vs 25) 

 

Remember, you belong to Christ Jesus and have purposefully given to Him your old, sinful nature, effectively crucifying it—your old way of living—to be saved and follow Him. (vs 24) 

 

When you believed in Jesus for salvation, you intentionally gave Him your old life—you put your life on the cross—and you accepted from Him the new life He gives that is guided and used by the Holy Spirit for God’s holy purposes. You chose to become His servant and child.

 

So, walk by the Spirit—obey Him—and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. (vs 16)

 

Think of nothing else. Give yourself no credit. It’s only because of God that you have what you do and you’ve done what you’ve done. You have no basis to actively be conceited, arrogant or boast. God gave you everything. He called you to do those things. God empowered you and gave what was necessary to do that for which He called you to obey. Nothing you have and nothing good you’ve done originated from you. You received from God all you have, your attributes, and your giftings. SO, you have no reason to be conceited. Instead thank God and give Him all the praise.

Rocks, Wrecks, and Relationship

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith, in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20 [NASB]

This last week in our Bible readings, we learned Jesus taught His disciples and followers in Matthew 6:33 not to worry about what they would eat, drink, or wear. Trust God. He is in control. If God provides food, drink, and beauty for his birds and flowers, how much more will He care for His greatest creation-humankind? God takes care of His people. We can trust Him so don’t be anxious.

After the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 8:20 Jesus told a scribe who wanted to be His follower that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. In this chapter, Jesus did not revoke what He’d said in 6:33. He expanded on it. Jesus made a bold statement with implication. He meant even the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head; do not expect you will have more than Me. The cost of being a disciple requires giving your whole life. Did Jesus mean God would not or could not give Him and His followers a place to lay under shelter? No, He meant, trust God’s heart even when He doesn’t give you a place to lay your head. He has a plan and for now it doesn’t include a bed under shelter. Have hope. Keep God’s peace which He gives through Jesus. Do you have peace and contentment even when God doesn’t provide what you need right now knowing His plan is best? This provides peace and contentment; anxiety does not.

With Galatians 2:20, Paul explained to the church in Galatia how he could continue to be a disciple of Jesus even when he had little or no food to eat. He said in this verse, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith, in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” [NASB] What does this have to do with trusting God, believing He will provide all my needs, keeping hope and peace, and being content knowing His plan is greater than what I can see? Paul said, he does not live in his own strength or for his own purposes. As a believer in Jesus Christ, he had been saved from his sins and was being sanctified daily by the Spirit. Because of this, Paul did not live out his will or life from his old natural self, but with the new life Christ gave him. He identified with and was crucified with Christ. Jesus lived in Paul’s body. Paul had given his whole being to God-heart, soul, mind, and strength. When he did this, he was crucified from his old sinful, self-willed person and was made into a new man by Christ through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Paul lived by the faith he had in Jesus to accept when he had enough and when he didn’t, and when he didn’t have anything. He was at peace because he trusted God to give Him what he needed in His timing for His purposes. This trust because of our hope and faith in God gives us peace and contentment. This shows a life in whom Christ lives because of His love for the person. It shows because of a person’s love for God through a close relationship with Him and evidence in obeying Him.

When Paul was saved from his sins, by faith (the faith God gives a person and the faith that person activates/uses to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God), he was saved from his sins, his shame, and the power of death. This means he was also saved from himself. Jesus in us as the Holy Spirit gives us the power to withstand temptation and sin. In our old nature, we do not have that power. By faith, Paul was saved from his sins and Christ came to live in him. Each day after his conversion, Paul, by his decision, chose to be more like Christ so he acted, spoke, and thought more like Christ and people saw Jesus living in him. That is faith in action, a daily giving our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength to Him in love. It requires trust and faith in God and His plan for our lives and the world. It requires recognizing we can do nothing to make this world a better place of our own will and design. God’s plan from the foundation of the world is to bring all people to a saving knowledge of Him. Paul’s faith grew. His trust in God grew. Paul trusted God to take care of all his needs. He had hope for his salvation in the future when Jesus returns. Paul had hope in Jesus each day to carry him through pitfalls and to give him what he needed. Even on days when Paul’s physical needs went unmet, Paul still had faith in God. He trusted in Him and God’s plans because he knew Him and loved Him with his whole being. This absolute trust came from peace and brought peace. It brought contentment with it as Paul trusted God.

Consider when Paul was on the ship going toward Rome and the winter storms tossed the ship and crashed upon the rocks. Remember when a viper bit him while they started a fire trying to get warm after swimming to shore. Next remember, Paul did not die from the snake bite, but ended up healing many people on that small island. We do not read that Paul was upset about not having food, dry clothes, a bed, or fresh water to drink. He trusted God’s plan to get him to Rome. Paul knew God had a purpose for their ship crashing on the rocks at that island. He had faith in God. Paul trusted Him. His hope in God sustained him because he knew God’s plan was greater than what he himself could discern. Paul was at peace and was content with where God put him for that time. He was daily and moment-by-moment being sanctified. This growing in Christ, the being sanctified, caused Christ to live in Paul’s body so Paul wasn’t seen, but Jesus was. By this, Jesus received the glory and praise. John said something similar when asked by his disciples what he would do now that the Messiah had come. John said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30 [NASB])

When we allow God to have our whole being, when we love Him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, then our relationship with Him becomes closer. We begin to become Christlike. When people look at us, watch us, and hear us, they no longer see who we were before we became Christians, but instead they see Jesus and are amazed and glorify God. All this takes faith in action and leads us to become Christians, seeking a deeper relationship with Him, growing in faith, hope, and love, gaining more peace, and having contentment. None of these is a once-off occurrence. As you daily walk with the Lord and seek His will, you grow, and your life becomes less about you and more about Jesus. You will decrease, and He will increase so that people see Jesus more and more in you.

Do you live by faith in your flesh or faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself up for you? This is what Paul asked Peter in Galatians 2:20.

What keeps you from giving God everything and letting Him become your everything?

Is your faith growing? Are you activating it by seeking God, seeking His truth, and seeking to live in obedience to Him?

Are you living with the hope Jesus gives you and the peace and contentment that come from knowing God will provide all your needs?

Remember what Paul said to the Romans,

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28 [NASB])

God has a plan. He has a purpose. You are part of the plan. He will take care of you.

Trust Him. Have Hope in Him.

Receive Peace from Him. Be Content.

Lord, I am weak. There is nothing in me that can save me from my sins. I realize I need you to save me from my sins, shame, and death. Lord, I need you to save me from my plans so that I seek You and Your best plans. Help me remember when I fear You don’t care that Your plan is okay, and I can trust You because of Your great love for me. Forgive me for when I run off and do my own thing. Forgive me for not seeking and obeying You. Forgive me for not activating my faith in You and then doubting Your love and care for me. Help me to trust you and to have all my hope in You. Give me Your perfect peace and contentment. Lord, live in me so that I decrease and You increase. Let the world see You in me as I walk in this body. You are God and I am not.

Hardened Heart, God Revealed

“So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.’” Exodus 4:23 [NASB]

In earlier studies of God’s “I am” (anoki/ani) statements in the Old Testament, we learned God told Abram He is his shield (his Protector and King). He told Abimelech, a non-Hebrew, He knew and restrained him (all-knowing and all-powerful). God told Isaac and Jacob He is faithful to His covenant with their ancestor Abraham; He is loving, Blesser, Protector, Keeper, all-knowing, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, transcendent, Provider, and Restorer. He told Moses He would always be with Him, is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is faithful, and deserves worship. In Exodus 3:14-15, God revealed His name for the first time. God told Moses His name is “I AM WHO I AM” (ehyeh asher ehyeh or Hayah or Yahweh). He said He is the self-existent One. God is the eternal God who was, is, and forevermore will be. He is the unchanging, eternal, self-existent One. God continued to speak to Moses in Exodus 4:11-15 by calling him to be His mouthpiece, though Moses felt and expressed his fear of being unable to be His spokesman. He doubted his ability, forgetting God prepares those whom He calls for His service. He reminded Moses He is the all-powerful, all-knowing, Creator who gives people their mouths and makes one able to speak or not. God commanded Moses to go and speak, and He would guide His mouth; He would be His Teacher. Still Moses feared his inability, then God provided a mouthpiece for Moses through his brother Aaron.

The next time God said I AM using anoki or ani was in Exodus 4:23, immediately after He told Moses he would be His mouth and speak to the Israelites. In Exodus 4:21-23, the LORD, Yahweh, told Moses he would perform His wonders before Pharaoh, but He would cause Pharaoh’s heart to harden and not let the Hebrews go. It seems odd that God would cause Pharaoh’s heart to harden against His command to let His people go. Why would God do that? We need to notice, when Moses would speak with Pharaoh, it would be the second time recorded in the Old Testament that God said “I am” to a non-Hebrew. Why is this significant? It shows God is God over all people, not just the Hebrews. He is over all other gods, those that humans create. It shows His care and love for every person. Because God is Creator of all people and things, God cares about everyone and wants them to know (yada) Him and be in a loving, saving relationship with Him. Most importantly, we learn from this passage, God can cause or allow things to happen that seem negative to show His might. He might cause or allow a person to have a hardened heart against Him to show His might over a situation, like the Hebrews’ release when He convinced Pharaoh through the many plagues that He is stronger than him so let His people go. God is greater than any person and created thing.

When a person hardens his/her heart against God that person chooses to be his/her lord over his/her own life. He/she effectively states, “I will do what I want to do no matter what You say, God. Though I hear You, I will ignore You.” Pharaoh considered himself, as his ancestors did, a god of the Egyptians. He felt his word was final, and he was almighty, nothing could go against him. Isn’t that the way we each feel when we choose to do what we want even though we know or sense God prompting us to do something else? In this passage, even before Moses confronted Pharaoh, God told him Pharaoh would say no each time he told him God says, “Let My people go.”

God knew Pharaoh’s heart. He foretold to Moses what would happen. God prepared Moses for Pharaoh’s stubbornness even though He realized it might cause Moses to balk again at speaking to Pharaoh. In this passage, God showed He is all-knowing, faithful, covenant-keeper, all-mighty, and Yahweh. God knows when each of us will be stubborn. He knows us and is prepared to show us Who is Yahweh. God allows us to make our own decisions; that’s free will. Still He doesn’t give up on us but keeps showing Himself to us.

God wants each of us to know and love Him, to be in a saving relationship with Him. He wants us to turn back to Him, to accept His gift of salvation from our sins, and have eternal life with Him. Without God’s saving us from our sins, we would receive the judgment of eternal separation from Him our sins deserve. Every one of us do wrong things in our lives. We each deserve judgment for those sins. God offers us grace from our sins through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, who died on the cross.

God knows you. He knows about your hardened heart against Him. Still He calls to you telling you He loves you, wants to forgive you, and wants to have an eternal relationship with you. Will you harden your heart to Him and keep being your own god? There’s no future in that path.

Solomon said in Proverbs 28:13-14:

“The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy. Happy is the one who is always reverent (to Yahweh), but the one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.” [HCSB]

The writer of Hebrews implored people in Hebrews 4:7 when he said, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” [HCSB]

Lord God, I know You are real, though I try to ignore that knowledge at times. I choose to do what I want so many times and often those go against Your moral laws. That makes me my own god. Lord, please forgive me for turning my back on You and ignoring You. Forgive me my stubbornness. Lead me to desire a relationship with You and make me aware of Your glory so that I am overwhelmed and realize you truly are Yahweh. Help me to realize I am just a finite, feeble, created human, but You are Almighty Creator and Savior. Amen.

Beware and Seek

“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

Jesus taught His Sermon on the Mount to a multitude of people. Some were Jews, others were seekers, and some were His disciples. Jesus began this part of His sermon the way He ended it, with a command. He began the first command on a negative note. Jesus ending command was positive.

Jesus said in verse one, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them.” He put people on notice not to do something in verse one. Jesus taught the people not to do things to “be noticed,” to receive honor, prestige, and glory. If you aim to do good things, those good deeds are ideas from God and He should receive the glory, not you. When you give to the poor, no one besides the person who you helped, God, and yourself should know. Jesus said the same thing about praying. You should not pray so people will notice you, but instead pray to God for Him to notice you, and to develop your relationship with Him. Prayer is about building your relationship with God and staying in a close relationship with Him. If you pray so others will see you and give you honor and praise, that will be your only reward. You get what you wanted-honor and glory. Your intention for prayer would not be for God to hear you, for you to hear from Him, and to have a deeper relationship with Him, but for people to recognize how “devout” you are. This desire for honor and glory is not righteous. Taking the honor and glory steals from God and makes you unrighteous.

What happens, though, when you pray so people will see or hear you or when you do good works so people see you doing them, the deeds God initiated in your heart? When you do these things to receive honor for yourself, the focus of your heart has changed from God to yourself. Instead of living a “top-down” life, that is acknowledging God and His will as primary in your life, you live an upside-down life with your will being primary in your thoughts, words, and actions. This leaves God to be secondary or non-existent in your life. The latter is of what Jesus told His hearers to “beware.” If you live an upside-down life, then your honor and glory, and your desires are primary motivators in your life. But, as Jesus pointed out in this chapter, you will end up worried and concerned about daily life things such as clothing, food, and drink. You might receive honor for yourself, but you end up worrying how you will provide for yourself and your family, basic things of life. You will have excluded God from your life and trust in Him that He will provide all your needs is nonexistent.

Why does this happen? It happens because God is not primary; He is not Lord of your life. When God is primary in your life, you can pray as Jesus taught in verses nine through thirteen. You reverence God and acknowledge He is the true God, and He is holy, not you. You seek His kingdom, His reign and wisdom, to come rule over earth just as it is in heaven. You desire God’s reign in your own life, too. For this to occur, you recognize only God is righteous and makes people righteous. In being made righteous by God, you want and sometimes must apply discipline to seek a growing relationship with Him. Your growing relationship with God teaches you that God will always take care of your needs. Just as He beautifully clothes relatively small, inconsequential creations like birds and the lilies of the field, He will clothe you, a human made in His image. As long as you stay in a relationship with God, Jesus said, you need not worry about what your body needs.

Jesus basically said to stay in a “top-down” relationship with God as primary in your life. With God at the head of your life, you recognize Him as God and King over you. You receive your righteousness from Him and acknowledge He is Lord. Your main goal in your connection with God who gives you righteousness is to stay in a growing relationship with Him. When you choose as the main thing in your life to have a growing relationship with God, then all other things fall into place. God remains King of your life, you give Him honor and glory, He provides everything you need, and your love for Him deepens so you obey Him.

 This is what Jesus meant in verse thirty-three when He told His followers, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” Jesus emphasized this point for a second time in this chapter. At the beginning of the chapter, He spoke about it in a negative format using the command “beware.” At the end of this chapter, Jesus used the positive command “seek.” “Beware” of doing this (seeking your own glory) and, instead, “seek” for God is what He told His hearers. What did Jesus mean when He told the people to seek God’s kingdom?

Our primary task as Christians is to stay in relationship with the God of our salvation and righteousness. That should remain our focus. Being in a close relationship with Him means we will obey Him when He tells us to do good, pray, fast, visit the sick, teach, preach, or any other thing He commands us to do. Our obedience shows our love for God. When we seek a growing relationship with God so that our will is to obey Him, that is “seeking first His kingdom.” Because we seek God, He will provide for all our needs. We will not put our glory or honor first and seek to provide for ourselves what we think we need. Instead, we seek God first. Instead we give God the glory. Instead we let God take care of us.

As Jesus said, we cannot serve two masters-God and our own self. We will end up hating one and loving the other. Instead of trying to make yourself master of your life and ending up worrying how you will give all your family needs, pay your bills, or bring your prodigal home, let God be Master of your life. Let Him provide for you. Let Him bring your prodigal home. Let Him be your Lord and Savior, your King. Anything you give yourself and family will be destroyed, rust, or rot. God gives what you need, and it will last forever. Instead, do as Jesus taught and don’t worry.

“Seek first His [God’s] kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” [NASB]

Lord, please forgive me for trying to rule my own life. You’ve been patient and watched me as I tried and fumbled. Lord, I recognize You as my Savior and King. Please forgive me and take control of my life. Help me grow in my relationship with You each day. Give me the burning desire to seek You daily. Use me for whatever you want. Lead me in your ways. May You receive all the honor and glory. Provide everything I need. Help me not to worry but give all my cares to You. I am taking my hands off the steering wheel of my life, Lord. I give its control to You. Thank you for being King and ruling with unconditional love and wisdom. Amen.