Your life is not your own. Your daily surrender to God is paramount for living a godly life, one that is full of His presence and bold proclaims the gospel to those around you.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” — Matthew 6:1-2
It doesn’t matter what the world says about you or what your spouse says about you. What matters is what God says about you. If you could only hook up to what He says, then it wouldn’t matter what people say about you. The fear of God will enter your life and the fear of men will exit your life.
Your life will become the pulpit for the Lord to witness through and you will never live by fear because you will walk by faith.
Surrender to Jesus
God has called you to absolutely surrender. When you come to an altar it’s not just about making your life better. God came to make dead people live, but the only way to make dead people live is by denying oneself. When the self is alive, you can’t share Jesus with anyone because you don’t have intimacy with God, for we are called to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow the will of God.
We need a profuse relationship and intimacy with Jesus so that we can answer people’s questions. We can’t get answers from the world, it does not work like that. When you look for an answer from the world, it produces a lost answer which then produces hope deferred.
There is a difference between you leading the Holy Spirit and you being led by Him.
A lot of counseling and things are people that want to make you co-dependent upon them because you need them to get through life and they are not the ones that are going to get you through life. God Himself, with Jesus interceding for you and the Holy Spirit comforting, teaching, and counseling you, are going to get you through life.
If you get scripture inside of your heart and you see the way God sees, you won’t live in the rush of yesterday. Faith doesn’t come by reading, it comes by hearing.
You have to cut ties with the world that has been your lord. The freedom you experience during worship on a Sunday should be the freedom you experience 24/7.
The Seed That Was Sown
God sowed His son so that you could reap life and life abundantly. It’s no longer about repeating what you sow but what Jesus sowed.
When it comes to tithing, a lot of people have the perception that God is after their money, but He is after your money having you.
You can only serve one of two masters. You can serve money or you can serve God. You can love the world or you can love God. if you are a lover of the world you are not a lover of God.
Matthew 6:1-2 says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”
You can lead someone to the Lord to gratify your own ministry needs and just to make yourself seem important. Although it’s right to lead people to the Lord, it can be done with the wrong motive.
The motivation of your heart is everything. Don’t bring people to Christ to follow you.
Galatians 6:7-8 says, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
Heavenly Minded and Earthly Incredible
When was the last time you trusted God and said, “You know what? You’re my provider and my job is not.” If you can’t give then money is the lord of your life.
Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
There is no problem with investing and making money. The problem is that none of that goes with you. The proof of where your heart is is where you are laying up treasures.
If your only concern is laying up treasures while on earth then how can you lay up treasures in heaven? Your perspective while you’re on earth is everything. You need to be heavenly-minded so you can be earthly incredible.
You should be able to do your job unto the Lord and not for people, but you should also be able to share your faith and see others come to Jesus. Keeping in mind that you need to do a good job all while glorifying Jesus.
Colossians 3:2 says
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth”.
You are supposed to think like God thinks. But how do you do that?
1 Corinthians 2:10 says:
“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”
What if you knew that when you sowed your dollar, it was going to produce one soul in heaven?
God wants you to be fruitful and multiply. In all of this, the requirement of the believer following Jesus is the surrendered life. Will you live every day surrendered to God’s will for your life, in accordance with His word?
Application Questions
How important is eternity to you? How important is it for you to bring people with you when you go?
How important is it for your colleagues at work to go to heaven? How important is it for you to see heaven full and hell empty?
We all have the ability to share our faith. Do you share your faith? If you felt inspired and motivated to share your faith, would you?
