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Are
We Living the Wise Life? Are we living the wise life? We trust in banks to
keep our money secure; we trust in our employers to keep us employed
until retirement; We trust in social security during retirement; we
trust in our spouse to stay faithful throughout the marriage; we trust
in the drug companies to keep us from pain; we trust in the insurance
companies to payout if something happens to our cars and homes; we trust
in our credit cards to buy our houses, and we trust in doctors,
literally with our life. But yet, none of these things are certain in
life. No, not one—only God is certain, only God can truly be trusted. When we believe in and trust in God that he will
fulfill his promises, even though we don’t see those promises
materialize yet, that is when we have shown God our true faith and trust
in him. Because of what we have to hope for in our future, trusting in
God with our life is the wisest thing a Christian can do. “Now faith
is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
(Hebrews 11:1) True faith and trust in God reveals itself in a
complete transformation of our body, mind and spirit. Faith in God means
salvation. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because
anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards
those who EARNESTLY seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) The Christian must experience acts of faith,
through a changed life to receive salvation. Having the faith to
trust in Jesus Christ is the most important aspect of our Christian
walk; otherwise our Christianity would be in vain—self-centered and
self-trusting. Trust comes from having faith in God. So
then knowing this we know that we truly cannot trust God with our life
if we don’t have the faith to believe that what God says for us is
true! But look, we have put our faith in banks, credit
card companies, our jobs, doctors and drug companies. But hundreds of
banks have gone under, millions of homes foreclosed on, thousands of
employees laid off, millions of people are still in pain and are dying
even though they relied on drugs to heal them! Many people that once had
money and a job are literally starving in America! We work so hard to
have these things and we put our total faith and trust into these things
and yet these things of the world are so uncertain! Have we put our faith in these things because we
can see them, and we believed in them? We believed our money would be
safe; we believed we would have our homes forever. We believed them when
they told us that the medications would help us to get well. We believed
our spouse when they promised faithfulness forever. We believed and put
our trust in these things because we could see them with our eyes and
hear them with our ears. But many of us have been let down and trust has
been broken. Only the power of God is certain! Only our faith in God
through Jesus Christ is going to save us. Faith Without Works is Dead. (James 2:28)
What kind of “works” are we talking about here?
Faith without belief and trust in Christ as our Savior makes all of our works
ineffective to God. He
wants to see our fruits. He wants for His children to quit talking about
trust and start trusting. We have to make trust an action in our lives!
Are we earnestly seeking God like we earnestly seek the material
enjoyments and worldly securities in our life? We work and strive so hard to trust all of the
worldly institutions in our lives because we have to give them our
hard-earned money and time. But all God asks of us, as far as
“works” goes is our faith to believe that what he says for us is
true. If we truly believed God’s promises for us, then we would change
our lifestyle to pursue those promises. There is no other way for the
Christian to earn salvation than through complete faith and trust in
Jesus Christ. Salvation is a gift from God ONLY when we
have fully trusted him with our life by stepping out into faith through
a change in lifestyle. God wants us to earnestly seek him and he will
reward us! Isn’t that worth putting your faith and trust in? Good
works will never earn salvation with God. Anyone can do good works, but
not anyone can actually put their TRUST in the power of Jesus Christ
through the Holy Spirit; it is the motive behind the good works that
brings salvation. Christ tells us in Luke 3:8 that we are to
“produce fruits in keeping with repentance”, which means changing
our way of life through trusting in God through Jesus Christ for our
salvation. God is a merciful and loving God and salvation is freely
given to us once we have truly turned our life around to follow him with
our life. Trust in God through faith is needed to produce the fruits of
repentance that Jesus is talking about. Don’t misunderstand, God wants us to serve others
in whatever capacity he has gifted us with, but doing these things will
not get us into heaven. It doesn’t take trust or belief in God to do
good deeds, but it takes trust and belief in God for us to turn our
lives around and earnestly seek him! Our love of God clearly shows a
changed heart and mind and is “faith with works” that Christ speaks
about. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do
what it says.” (James 1:22) Transform your life. Attitudes of the Heart
The Pharisees were a perfect example of faith
without works. They did many good works, especially when they knew
people were watching, but the problem was they did not have the
“works” (faith) to believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
They certainly knew who Jesus was, but they did not believe that God
sent His Son to forgive them their sins. Consequently they were unable
to put their trust in Christ. You can’t trust something you do not
believe in. In a nutshell, everything the Pharisees did was for
appearances sake and self-promotion and gratification. They did not put
their trust in Jesus Christ, rather they trusted in themselves and
institutions, which was very unfortunate for them since the only way to
God is through Jesus Christ. Some
people confuse what the words “deeds” or “works” meant that
Christ was talking about. Many believe it involves doing good works for
others, but as we see it is not the case at all. God values and cherishes the attitudes of our
hearts above what we do. Faith must be put to work in our lives
through our attitudes and how we live as Christians. Having trust in
Christ is a personal aspect of our relationship with God, rather than
something that involves doing something for others. Can we have faith
for someone else? Can we put our trust in Jesus for someone else? Can we
live someone else’s lifestyle? The “works” and “deeds” that
Christ is talking about is for ourselves and what we “do” with our
personal lives! Trusting in God with our Attitude About Money and
Riches
Even if we are monetarily poor and have no
possessions we can still allow desire and greed to control our lives.
Believers have a difficult time trusting in God in this area of their
life and that’s because everyone has certain standards they want to
live by and they continually pursue that standard of living, even if it
takes them away from trusting in God. God doesn’t want us to quit our jobs and become
beggars because that would be foolish but he does want us to get our
priorities right with him. Why do you think Jesus says, “Money is the
root of all evil”? It is
because striving for money and riches and even desiring these things
keeps us from putting our faith in God. If our main priority in life is
striving for more and more money, status, and luxuries of life, where
does God fit in? “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from
the faith and have pierced themselves with many grief’s.” (1 Timothy
6:10) Sometimes we have to lose our houses to
foreclosure, our jobs to layoff, and our cars to seizure before we
realize that none of these things matter in the first place! What really
matters is putting our hope, faith, and trust with God and working in
this life to gain spiritual treasures that we can take with us to
heaven! A man went up to Jesus and asked, “How can I
receive eternal life”? Jesus said to the young man, “sell your
possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come follow me.” (Matthew 19:21) Sometimes it takes a wealthy person to lose all
they have to humble their lives to Jesus Christ and begin to depend on
him and make him more important than money and riches. Even the desire
for wealth and the continual striving to have what we do not need can
keep us from trusting in God. Does
this mean that Christians must get rid of all of their possessions to
receive eternal life? No, God simply does not want our desire for riches
and our attitude about money to steer us away from putting our hope and
trust in him. We have responsibilities in this life to care for
our families and to care for those who are less fortunate than us. God
doesn’t want us to be a burden on others; we still have to make a
living. But some things such as creating debt in our lives, stockpiling
our money rather than using it to help others, and relying on doctors to
be responsible for our overall physical health can be disastrous. Look
at all the pain and suffering that these things is doing to God’s
people? And we put our trust in these things! Our attitude about money should be that of the
willingness to give up everything we have for Him, if it ever came to
that. God doesn’t want our eagerness for riches to come between him
and us. We are to use what we have in ways that pleases him, to serve
others in whatever capacity he has gifted us with, and to help those who
are in need. Using our money and possessions to please God shows that we
have our priorities about money right with God. Don’t let money take
the place of God in your heart. “No one can serve two masters. Either he will
hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and
despise the other. You cannot both serve God and money.” (Luke 16:13) When we believe and trust in God that he will
fulfill his promises for us, even though we cannot see those
promises materialize yet, that is when we have given God our faith and
trust. (Hebrews 11:6) This is what we ought to be striving for—this should be our first priority in life. We should put our faith in God first and then God will guide us properly in this world and give us wisdom to know the difference between right and wrong. Is it wise to trust in God given what we know about him? It’s the only way! |