Looking at the World Through the Wrong Eyes
Success can distract you as you seek to follow God's will. Elijah's primary assignment was to announce when a drought would begin and end (1 Kings 17:1). God had told him to proclaim to King Ahab that the drought was an act of judgment upon a people who worshiped idols rather than God. In the middle of Elijah's assignment, a spectacular thing happened. Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal and called fire down from heaven, putting hundreds of priests of Baal to death. This was one of the most awesome displays of God's power recorded in Scripture. Elijah could easily have focused strictly on that event. Fire falling from heaven is much more spectacular than a rainstorm! When something spectacular happens, we can easily be sidetracked. If Elijah lived today, he might have begun a “Calling Down Fire from Heaven” ministry! The dramatic is far more appealing to us than obedience to the mundane. Destroying hundreds of Baal's prophets would appear to be a climactic victory for any prophet of God. Yet Elijah persisted in his assignment. He announced the coming rain. This had been his primary message, and he delivered it. If you aren’t careful, you may become so distracted by the successes you experience that you never complete what God originally assigned you to do. Will your success today cause you to disobey tomorrow? - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day
When you get up each day, as God grants you that right, what is your perspective on it? Are you looking at what you are going to get out of today or are you looking at what God's going to receive from you today?
If your aware or not you should be. A believer in Jesus Christ isn't to be living for themselves. It isn't about our rights or our desires. It's a life denying self, taking up our cross and following Him.
You possibly post and repost various things and themes. You probably say or repeat things that others have said. Are those things in alignment with words that God would speak?
You go out in this world to do various things. Is God glorified in them? Scripture says in Colossians 3 that in all we do, do as unto the Lord. Thinking goes hand-in-hand with doing.
Are you glorifying God in your body or is the world too busy seeing you glorify yourself in your body?
Success in our eyes isn't necessarily success in the eyes of God.
It's easy to also have a feeling of ease when perceived success happens. We might be blessed with money. We follow after the way of the world and spend it on ourselves without regard to what mission God has entrusted to us. Mission? Look at the parable of the talents. 3 servants given various amounts to do something with while their Master was away. That Master is Jesus. You are the servant. Will you follow the way of the world in how you serve God?
We who are in Christ are told by Christ what we are to do in this life. What to expect as believers, saved through grace as we are. A chosen people, a royal priesthood. Children of God. Not giving the freedom we have in Christ as an excuse to live life like the world does in disobedience.
Can we spend blessings given to us from God on ourselves? Yes. However realize the warning that such people are spending their heavenly rewards here on Earth. You will get to Heaven to find very little there for you. You will also become very self-centered. Not God centered. You will become a mirror of the same people God saved you to go seek and bring to Christ. They won't see Christ in you, they will see no reason to come to Christ because of you. Jesus sternly warned of those who caused children to stumble, how much more adults being caused to stumble by other adults! Is the example you provide really following the footsteps of Jesus or that of a Pharisee and Sadducee? Making someone a twice the son of Hell as the could have been in Christ?
You may not think your views on life matter THAT much, but EVERY person will give an account of their lives before Jesus, and THAT account will be seen by the Gold Standard, the Will of God. Not the will of you.
Be wary of who's eyes you look at this day through. Are you using sinful eyes or are you looking at the world through the eyes of one looking at the mission God gave you to accomplish?
It's perhaps the easiest in our day and age, since the Genesis Flood, to be selfish. Each man doing what is right in their own eyes. Vanity, sexuality, selfishness, pride, arrogance, selfishness of every kind. My rights, my wants, my, my, my. People protesting because they want free this or free that. They don't want to earn anything. They take up a cause in something and it has absolutely nothing to do with them. They demand you openly support their self-proclaimed protest or you are against them. Self, self, self. Me, me, me. I, I, I. Hmm...where have I read that before...oh yes...the New Testament. Saying that that's how it would be before Christ returns. People will be just like it was in the days of Noah.
Before you go out into your God granted day today, get real with yourself about your motives for living. Will you be ashamed of your selfishness before Christ or will you be able to praise God when you see Him?
God has granted you a life to live...choose wisely...and well.
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