Is Your Heart In The Right Place

What is it that helps you make it through the day. Is it that first morning cup of coffee or other caffeinated beverage? Is it that motivational speaker on the radio or television that tells you first thing that you are a good person? Do you rely only upon worldly things to give you that jump start and bring joy? Or do you just get up and go hoping that others whom you think you trust will help get you through the day? What was missing in all those situations? The Cup of Salvation and the Bread of Life.

Placing your hope, trust, and life, in the hands of others without first giving all things to God is a very dangerous thing. Without God you risk placing yourself in the hands of someone who may be out to harm you mentally or physically. The person may put you in a situation where there is no escape.    

Here is what Adonai says:
“A curse on the person who trusts in humans, who relies on merely human strength, whose heart turns away from Adonai. He will be like a tamarisk in the ‘Aravah —when relief comes, it is unaffected; for it lives in the sun baked desert, in salty, uninhabited land.

Blessed is the man who trusts in Adonai; Adonai will be his security. He will be like a tree planted near water; it spreads out its roots by the river; it does not notice when heat comes; and its foliage is luxuriant; it is not anxious in a year of drought but keeps on yielding fruit.
 
“The heart is more deceitful than anything else and mortally sick. Who can fathom it?
I, Adonai, search the heart; I test inner motivations; in order to give to everyone
what his actions and conduct deserve.” Jeremiah 17:5-10

This is not saying that trust in our fellow man is bad. It is a warning that trusting someone who does not trust in God may result in bad things happening.

Reliance On God Will Save You

Scripture is full of stories of people who relied on God and were saved from certain fates. Joseph Son of Jacob had faith that God would use his situation for good. He saved many during a famine. David killed Goliath because his faith gave him a keen eye and a strong hand. He became a king. Jeremiah was tossed into a cistern. The truth of God he spoke set him free. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were saved from a furnace. Daniel and the lion’s den. And the list goes on and on.

Yet People Still Deny God Exists

How can we deny God with all those people who had a relationship of trust in a God they could not see? Many people will say they are just myths and legends. Some claim disbelief because there is no evidence any of it is true (um, archeological findings is proof). There are too many physical discoveries coming to light.

We Rely Too Much On Worldly Things 

This day and age has seen less and less people believing in God. Instead they put their trust in physical things that other people have made. The idol of money as the only means of survival is very strong and has turned many hearts away from God. Money cannot truly make a person happy, in fact, money will only bring sadness. It is a temporary joy because it gives only physical pleasures. The need for money is a disease that people think the only cure is to get more money. Material things are good for survival of the body but too much can destroy the soul.  

How sad it is to see lives destroyed when the money stops coming in and they do not know how to survive. The survival skills of the past have been lost because of self-reliance on an idol instead of reliance on God. Technology has replaced personal relationships as we have become slaves to electronic devices. The youth have become so engrossed with the happenings of others and desiring to be someone or something else that they forget who they themselves are. 

The Lawless One Is Present

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

Forgetting your true self, the one that God created, and believing the lies told in the world brings this passage to life.

 So many are deceived by the lie that was caused by the depraved mind of sexually immoral men that the whole world is in chaos. God’s Law has been perverted to a point where many think the opposite of God’s Law is the new good. It is not just the sexually immoral but all those who deny the Ten Commandments, the morality laws, values, and ethics that are found in the Tanakh. These are people who will speak Scriptures taking them out of context to fit their own desires.

What Do We Do?

As Christ followers we are to abide by His teachings, which include adherence to the Laws of God, which include the Ten Commandments and morality laws. Because we are not born Jewish we do not have to adhere to the dietary laws. Jesus also removed the stoning, and other major punishments by men. When we ignore these things, we are given into sin and become a slave to the lawless one.
We are to love those who persecute us and bring hope to the hopeless. Do not judge those who believe the falsehoods but treat them with kindness and compassion so they may see the truth.

May God’s Love, Grace, and Mercy shine upon you,

Rob, Servant of God