Most of us are unwilling to burn our bridges when it came to trusting God. One needs to be ready with a backup plan in case He doesn’t come through, right? Absolutely, because if we come with a backup plan, we will need it. Why would God come through for whatever idol one is protecting in their life? If we are not trusting Him all the way, we are not trusting Him at all. Perhaps we are using Him as a means to a different end…
Social status? Financial stability? A marriage? If we put anything before God, we are not in a right relationship with Him and should examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
– 2 Corinthians 13:5 (NASB)
What about sacrificing temporal things without recourse for getting them back? Are we really willing to let go of our homes, our comfortable lifestyle, etc. to never get them back? Do we really recognize that we have an eternal home that far outweighs any suffering we may experience here? Quite possibly not.
Do we imagine that God will take second place in our lives, allowing us to worship our trivial earthly blessings above Himself? He won’t.
“For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.
– Isaiah 48:11 (NASB)
And if it seems that He is tolerating this in your life, then perhaps it is because He doesn’t know you and will not acknowledge you before the Father… Clearly He will not go against His Word. Have we forgotten the holiness of God? More likely, we have never known it nor considered it. Truths such as these have been compelling me to move beyond the American Dream, beyond the typical life of a Christian in America, beyond ensuring that education, finances, health and retirement are all in order… and expecting God’s blessings upon those endeavors. Just what if I and my family were to throw ourselves away for the sake of serving others? What if we were to sacrifice the American-defined ideal life for the sake of those in dire straights? We may never recover, but does it matter? Christ did this for me. If I am to fulfill my purpose in being one of God’s self-portraits, I should not be surprised if He leads me to do as Christ did.
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