God’s view of what we term success and failure is very different to ours. A line in the poem “If”, by Rudyard Kipling reads, “If you can meet with triumph or disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same…..”, brings a different perspective to the terms. God is more interested in my motive for doing something rather than what I actually do. 1 Corinthians 10:31 declares “Whether you, eat, or drink or WHATEVER you do, do all to the glory of God” If my motive for doing something is to please men and make myself look good in their eyes, God will judge it as “wood, hay and stubble”. God searches our heart, looking for the motive that is firstly to please Him, inspite of what men may think. This is the motive that produces gold to be stored as treasure in heaven.
Jesus taught “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you”, Matthew 6:33. Are the things I am seeking in life for kingdom purposes, or have I wrongly prioritised? God is not against us having possessions, as long as we seek His kingdom first and hold them loosely,not allowing them to possess us, taking that first place in our lives that belongs to Him.
God defines success as living in God, and God living in me.
One of Hudson Taylor’s co-workers came to him in distress. He woefully declared that he must be doing something wrong, as he had not prayed for himself for two months. Hudson Taylor wisely answered, “I haven’t prayed for myself for two years. When your main focus is extending the kingdom of God, God makes provision for everything else” …….and all these things shall be added unto you.
Psalm 91 defines our secret place of abiding and resting under the shadow of almighty God, even in the midst of life’s storms, He has provided His safe harbour.
Psalm 119:67 The psalmist reflects “Before I was afflicted, I went astray…” The Lord comes to test our hearts. David prayed for an undivided heart in Psalm 86:11 “Teach me Your way, O Lord, I will walk in Your truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name”. We have all strayed at some point. God forebears and forgives and is able to use every set of circumstances to teach us something. Instead of asking God to change things in my life, the highest is to seek His face to understand where I need to surrender, and abandon all things into His hands…..safe hands! In this position, God takes care of everything else I have been clinging to. The greater (abandoning to God), includes the lesser (concerns over “things”).
The man who learns to sit still….. moves quickest when the Spirit prompts. The Psalmist learned the purpose of his affliction. Psalm 119 continues and in verse 71 we read:”It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes”
Some of our biases are deeply ingrained in our innermost parts. Only the Holy Spirit can safely excavate those hidden depths that need to be transformed, leaving room for another measure of the fullness of Christ. God is bringing us back to Eden to walk WITH Him.
“Be still, and know that I am God”, Psalm 46:10
Learning to stay still can take a lifetime. I have to learn to leave, to abandon to Christ the things I cannot change. Only when I lean on Jesus will I be able to stand in Him, The Rock of Ages, my firm foundation.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness……
Photo by Kix Chains on Unsplash