2019-03-28
praying-church

Remember when you first learned to ride a bike without training wheels, you felt wobbly and even crashed? Our parents told us to just try to ride a few houses down, but we were determined to take on the entire neighborhood block. A few bruises later, we found out our parents were right and we curtailed our lofty ambitions. This childhood illustration reminds us that our way of doing things is not always God's best for us. Of course, succeeding in how to ride a bike is nothing compared to our spiritual lives. 

But our stubbornness to submit to authority does. Our resistance doesn't leave when we are adults--we still want to lead God down the road that we want to travel. This doesn't work as success in God's Kingdom is different. We are called to be faithful, first. 

No matter what dream we may have, we can never tussle with God and emerge a winner. When living by God's standards, it is all about obedience, New York Times best-selling author Mark Batterson explained in Chase the Lion. He said it is all about honoring God. "We all want to do something amazing for God, but that is not our job," he wrote. "That's God's job. Our job is to consecrate ourselves."

Here are 6 reasons to devote yourself to Kingdom living.

We are called to live for His glory.

We are reminded in Psalms 115: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth [or, faithfulness]." Society focuses on achievement, accolades, having more stuff and making more money. This cycle can be detrimental to our spiritual lives. There is nothing wrong with being successful, but we all have a tendency to become out of balance. We are called as believers to put God first and when we do this, our lives remain on track.

We limit Him.

When we become obsessed with winning, we are actually limiting God. When we start idolizing achievements, we may miss what God is saying to us because communication is becoming one way. If we receive our way all the time, we will never learn how to deal with life and disappointment. Additionally, when we look to the next emotional high of achievement, we are doing ourselves a disservice by not giving God the opportunity to accomplish His purpose.

It empowers us.

God's will might be dangerous or far-fetched to you, but it will bring Him glory. He may want you to start a business, fund a mission trip or serve Him on the worship team. The will of God is not always something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over, it is about sacrifice. Fear will try to tempt us to hold onto our will for life since it is a blind faith that we need to follow Him. Jesus told His disciples to be followers of His and did not guarantee them or us earthly success. Sacrificing your desires to serve the Kingdon is more powering than you think.

We set better priorities.

Sometimes we won't accomplish everything we want to, but at the end of the day, it is all about God and His mission for us. We have our priorities all jacked up when it comes to our personal lives. By focusing only on a career and climbing the ladder of success above being with loved ones, you are missing out. You want the people that you love the most to be there for you on your death bed, not money. Jesus warned us to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

We become disillusioned.

Jesus' aim was to not be comfortable but to serve man. Jesus was poor, He didn't even have His own bed and did not acquire any material wealth. He relinquished His eternal riches and most of the privileges to follow the will of God. Are we called to try to do the same thing? We might not be called to relinquish all material possessions, but we are called to sacrifice for the Kingdom. In Matthew 19:23, Jesus said people who believe that their money will get them into Heaven are mistaken. “Truly I say to you that with difficulty a rich person will enter into the kingdom of heaven," he told a young rich man. Jesus reiterated this again in verse 24. He said we must serve the poor. As believers, we are called to serve and follow Christ's example as painful it may be.

It helps us get on the same page.

If you want to find happiness and joy, you need to trust God has your best interest at heart. How can you find peace with Him when the gloves are off all the time. This battle will leave you feeling vanquished as you can't control God! "To find any joy in a relationship with God, you have to agree that He knows what's best for you. You'll never find much delight in Him if you're always fighting him," Christianity Today shared. We were never guaranteed that we would get everything that we want in life. We are called to submit and to trust God that He has a plan. 

As humans, we erroneously believe that we have to reach a certain financial level and career level to be successful. But here is the kicker, you will never be satisfied. There will always be a hole that you are trying to fill because you were meant to be so much more than a worldly success. Just as we never listened to our parents, we don't listen to the Father as well. However, God honors our faith and when we try to follow Him towards the success that He has for us.


 
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