This post is a bit of a follow up to the Monday post on Swap Blog titled Be Strong and Courageous. The point of that post is that God provides Christians with basic guidelines via Joshua’s transition to leader of Israel after Moses death that can act as a guide for His people. Those guidelines are as follows –
1) Faithfulness of God – success does not come by following your ways or by working your plans but by trusting and following God’s ways and God’s plans.
2) Follow the example of the godly & Mediate on God’s Word – study God’s word and look to others that God is prospering and learn from their lifestyle, their habits, their ways, and their faith
3) God promises to be personally there - God is there. He is with you, He is helping you, He is defending you, He is personally involved, and He cares.
Joshua chapter 1 verse 9 - “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” served as the base point for our original post and is a place where Christians can find a reason to have strength and courage in tough times. Continuing in that same trend, find the strength and courage to follow God even when it seems unwise and unprofitable for use personal we now look to the book of Hebrews for some more guidance and strength.
Hebrews 10:35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For in just a very little while,
"He who is coming will come and will not delay.
Hebrews 10:38 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him."
Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
The above scriptures show that those of God are not destroyed. This is because the saved are not fooled, and the saved and faithful know that they are not alone when the tough times come. This ability to withstand all that comes against them and to not shrink back comes from their knowledge of Go, His strength, and His ways.
You can not develop this knowledge of God and know His strength unless you spend time seeking Him. Fundamentally this knowledge and strength comes from knowing that God does have a plan and He (God) will show His people what His purpose and what His will for their lives are. Humans all do better, work harder, and suffer longer when we know that we are living for a purpose and that our life has value. Those that have no purpose and no core values give up when the attacks come because they are not linked personally with the cause and the leader, so they have no reason to stick around when it gets tough.
Those things, having purpose and value in one’s life, are what God brings to the life of the saved. In hindsight the saved have to admit that pre-salvation our lives were really accomplishing nothing, our purpose was ourselves, and our values were situational. Once we accept God and begin living for Him we begin to impact the world. At that point, our purpose becomes bigger then ourselves, and our values are no longer defined by man but are defined by God. This new, real, larger purpose and these new Godly, selfless values are the things give us a reason to stand up against the forces that come against us.
God’s promise to those that have His purposes / plans and His values in their lives via the redeeming grace found in the blood of Christ is that God will have profitable lives. Along with this promise of a profitable life comes the promise of God’s protection of their lives as well. Now that does not mean that they saved will have worldly success (i.e. monetary and fame) and that nothing will happen to them, in fact following God will likely impact your worldly success and may even lead to you losing your earthly life for the causes of Christ. The promise that God is making is that the saved will have success in the endeavors that God leads them too - i.e. ministries, movements, causes, leading / directing / helping others, and other Godly endeavors. God’s promise is that He will remain beside them and protect them from being destroyed, and that is sufficient for the saved to remain true and devoted to Him and His call.
This devotion leads us to discuss the other promise that we find in Hebrews. That is that there is a time coming where God’s ways and successes will be known to all. This time will be the return of Christ and all will see and know who God is and see the glory of Christ as savior. For the Christian though this should not be seen as a time where they are saying - “See I told you so”, but should be a time when they are rejoicing in the power of their God. The motives of the saved should not be to see their enemies proven wrong or shamed but to be changed to where they have a full and complete relationship with God via Christ as well. Christians should always desire that everyone share in this joy, even those that oppose and persecute them while they are here on earth. This is the true mark of the Godly.
Today we rejoice in the love, support, care, and strength that we, and you, can find in God. Take those things and apply them to your life and your ways and God will make a success. God desires that you succeed, and that you accomplish all that He wants for you. God does not want you to live a mundane and boring life, but wants you to live a life full of accomplishments and full of successes in Him. Our lives are to be lived for His glory, not ours. Live for God and He will more then provide for you.
