Day 2607 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Hebrews 11:6 NIV

I think one of the biggest questions that we have to ask ourselves is who are we trying please? What is the reward we’re looking for? Where are we searching for our hope? Where are we focused on building our lives? The answer to those questions determines who or what we serve, focus on, and worship. Sadly, as we've been discussing, all these twisted new messages that some are sharing are completely geared toward us and what we desire for ourselves. It's not at all hard to see why those new "gospels" are so popular. They're all about us, and wouldn't you know it, but we're all about us too!

The problem is that this isn't about us. That's something that we've covered plenty in these posts recently. And yet, these messages that have reeled so many in with their enticing lies are built on catering to self. They place the focus on seeking the lives that give us this sense of power or control or success according to the definitions of those things that this world has settled upon. They tell us that Jesus is the key to everything we want. But they don't hinge on change. They don't discuss changing what we want. They don't speak to the danger of what we want. They keep that spotlight right on us and that's exactly where we like it.

Because we’re so used to living to please ourselves. And so our lives and everything we’ve ever done have been built around seeking the personal rewards that so many others have made us believe exist in living life according to the standards and norms of this world. We’ve settled for temporary rewards because they come easier, quicker, and always revolve around us.

This new religion is all about pleasing self. It's about building our lives the way we want them, filled with all the things that catch our eyes, and seeking our rewards here and now. But friends, we're not here to please ourselves. We're here to serve the Lord. That’s what a Christian life should be focused on. To lay down our old lives and take up the new that He purchased on the cross so that we could be a part of something bigger than living for ourselves alone. We're called to deny ourselves, not to make ourselves the priority. We're promised that our reward for a life given to Christ is found in Heaven. So why keep looking for some kind of reward here?

Yet that's exactly what so many just can't seem to let go. They can't get over themselves. They can't find the humility to let go of focusing on themselves. They can't reach that point where faith finally helps them see that all of our hopes and dreams are nothing compared to what we have in Christ. Too many are too used to the ways of this world and they don't really care to learn anything different. They're good with doing as they've always done, yet they want to think they're doing better and so they craft these "gospels" that let them retain their self-centered priorities to seek selfish rewards according to what this world says is important or valuable.

Friends, we have got to choose. It is us or God? His way or ours? Faith or control? As we discussed yesterday, we first turned to Christ because we were tired of living the way of life that we'd learned from the world around us. We opened up our hearts to Jesus and asked Him to lead us to His promises for us because we knew that we would never find anything lasting in this place. So what are we still holding onto? What do we think this world still has to offer? Are we going to actually live out the faith we claim to have, or try to create some new belief system that caters to us and our worldly desires?

We're not forced to choose a life of faith. That's a choice we made because we wanted something different than all the junk this world offers us. And we made that choice to put our faith in God and build our lives in Christ because we believed that He does exist, that He did die for us, that He does love us, and that He has plans and promises that are the very kind of different that we were looking for. But we can't go half-way. We can't stop at saying we believe or that we trust in His plans. We have to do this thing! We have to stop looking to the world around us and give Him all we've got.

Until we do that, until we get past this desire to find something for ourselves in this world, until we finally let go of this place and trust that His path is better, we'll never know what faith really is. We have to be willing to let go. Of ourselves. Of our hopes. Of our dreams. Of our desires. Of our goals. Of the things this world has taught us to believe. Of this idea that there is some kind of reward in living our lives for ourselves. We have to let it all go because it will only come between us and God if we don't.

The fact is that we cannot live our lives trying to gain something in this world and still think we’re giving everything we have to find that eternal reward of Heavenly peace. We cannot plant roots in the things and ways of this earth and plant roots in eternity. We cannot keep holding tightly to these lives in this place and just carve out a bit of room for faith so that we don’t feel quite so selfish. We have to choose one or the other. And what’s strange is that we claim to have already made that choice. We claim to be living by faith in Christ. So is He our everything, or just something that we glance at when we start feeling selfish for putting ourselves first?

So again I ask: where are we seeking our reward? Make no mistake, we will find something either way we choose to go. If we choose to keep living according to the ways of the world, we will find the comfort and acceptance and material stuff that everyone else wants. But we won't find God. He is not of this world. He is vastly different, and the reward for following Him is vastly different as well. So if we choose to live by faith in Him and trust in His promises, we will find our reward in Heaven in the form of eternal peace. One is quicker. One is easier. One is obviously far more common. But the other is the one that lasts. Your choice folks.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold