In that I commanded thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and, and to keep His commandments and His statutes, and His judgements that thou mayest live and multiply; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Why is it so hard? The commands are so very simple, love the Lord, walk in His ways, keep His commandments, statues and judgements…..the rewards for obeying these simple commands are life changing…..God’s blessing on our life. Who doesn’t want that? So why is it we allow the troubles of life to stand in the way of our love for God and obedience of walking in His ways and keeping of His commandments, statutes and judgements?
Sin. We have a sinful nature. It is not natural for us to submit to God, His will and His ways, it is natural for us be angry, spiteful and self-reliant. But, when we got saved, the old, natural man died and we became new creatures in Christ; so, why is the commandment found in Deuteronomy 30:16 so hard?
I know in my own life when I let the pressures of life get to me I sometimes take my eyes off of Christ and look inward, depending upon self, and that always ends up being a disaster. I know this is common, I am not alone in doing this, and when it occurs, I know I need to put my focus back on God, but sometimes I don’t, sometimes I ignore that urging of the Holy Spirit and keep on truckin’ down the road of disaster. Why??
1. We are trying to serve God and man.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 and in Luke 16:13 that we cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot serve God and do things ‘our’ way, we cannot serve God and depend upon self, or anyone or thing else outside of God. Serving the Lord means yielding to Him and His will for our lives; serving the Lord means we go to Him for direction about everything in our lives, and obey what He says to do. Serving the Lord means He comes first, no matter what.
2. We are more concerned with pleasing people than we are with pleasing God
Paul said in Galatians 1:10 if we please men we are not the servant of Christ. I have issues with this; I am a man {person} pleaser. I struggle with approval from people when I know that the only approval that matters is the approval from my heavenly Father, which I received when I got saved. No thing I do will increase His approval of me, I already have His total and complete approval because of His Son.
3. We aren’t fully trusting and relying on God
In I Timothy 6:17 Paul said to trust in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. God owns the cattle on a thousand hilltops; everything we have has been given to us to be stewards over, by God; but it’s so very easy to look beyond what God has given us and look at what we don’t have and what we think we need or want; how foolish we are when we put our trust in ourselves or anything else besides God. It is the Lord who gives and the Lord who takes away, look at Job.
4. We need more Christian fellowship
James told us in James 4:4 that whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Jesus hung out with sinners, in fact, some folks were just astonished that He had dinner with certain other people or went to the home of certain ‘kinds’ of people. Jesus told us in Matthew 28:19-20 to tell everyone about Him, salvation and the Kingdom of God; but Paul gave us a reminder in II Corinthians 6:14 not to be unequally yoked, for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? I don’t think it’s wrong to have friends who are not Christians, but we have to be careful when we hang around them; I know for myself when I am around non-Christian family members and friends I have to either keep my time with them short or be super watchful or I’ll slip right into old habits from before I got saved. People who aren’t saved are friends of the world, and worldly things, and the Bible says these things are not friends with God; when I am with my non-believing friends and family I make a conscious effort to keep my focus on Christ and direct everything we talk about back around to Him.
5. We are more concerned with worldly things that eternal things
John told us in I John 2:15 to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The world doesn’t love God; the world is concerned with things like money, fame, social status; these are not things of God. Jesus said for us to lay our treasures in heaven, for where our treasure is that is where our heart will be also. For me, this would be my house. Our house was a gift from God; it honestly is a dream come true for me. Where I get in trouble is that I want it to look a certain way, and if I am not careful, I get too wrapped up in this and take my focus off the fact it is a gift from God. I don’t think there is anything wrong in wanting my house to look nice or to be pretty, but it shouldn’t consume me. Doing the best with what you have can be very God-honoring, if the glory is given to him, and nothing else.
So, when things start going down-hill, and we find our focus isn’t on God like it should be, maybe we should consider some of the facts above; make sure we are not trying to serve God and man, drop man, and serve God; make sure we are not trying to please people, serve Christ instead. Even when it’s hard, in the darkest hour, look up and put our trust and dependence in God; He hasn’t failed us yet, He isn’t going to start now. Jesus said God already knows what we need before we even do, and He provides those needs.
Get together with some Christian friends for an informal Bible study or fellowship; even if you don’t bring your concerns to them, I believe the Lord will use them and their words to encourage you, and finally, stop putting so much stock in ‘things’ here on earth and start putting stock in eternal things….when we do, suddenly, the things we have been blessed with are seen as a blessing and the things we don’t have, don’t really matter. Praise be to God.
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Jenn
Such good points! Yes, I find those 5 things often tempt me away from following and obeying Him. Thanks for this!
ReplyDeleteThank you Bethany! And thank you for visiting Is It Monday, Yet? Have a blessed week!
DeleteIt's so important to put God above all, and count God's opinions as the most worthy ones We all need this encouragement so frequently. Thanks for sharing, Jenn.
ReplyDeleteYes, number 2 gets me a lot. Thankfully, the Lord continues to sanctify me in this area. Stopping by from the Coffee For Your Heart link up.
ReplyDeleteThis is my favorite contribution to the Literacy Musing Monday linkup last week simply because it spoke to me. I didn't even see these five actions as rebellion. Thank you for pointing this out, Jennifer. I do need to work no my heart, as well as four of these five areas.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Tami, it is an honor to be featured at Literacy Musing Monday, and thank you so much for visiting Is it Monday, yet? God bless you!!
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