Take Up Your Cross and Follow JesusSample

  

Trust in God 

Man’s soul is nourished only when he is rich in terms of God and not the success symbols of the world (Luke 12:19-21). For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?

The soul of man is nurtured in a deep relationship with God (Genesis 2:7). A relationship which is so intimate that the very breath of God breathes in and out of man and man is one with God. To keep this relationship with God going, man needs to hate sin and deal with it ruthlessly. 

The Lord explains this matter of holiness before God in Mark 9:43-48. As God’s people, do we have a holy hatred towards sin? Are we giving room to sin in our lives and giving excuses for our leniencies and indulgences? Are we thinking that, since our ministry is successful, God will overlook sin in our lives? 

God’s word is direct and strong. At this moment, if God is convicting any of us of sin in our lives, which we may have sanctioned for years, will we repent and forsake it? Let us remember that fleshly lusts war against the soul (I Peter 2:11). 

What is required to build a relationship with God? The first is trust. Man is in a trust relationship with God. He needs to be totally cast upon God, seeing Him as his sustenance and not the material things of life (Acts 17:28-29). 

The opposite of trust or faith in God is not distrust or doubt but it is sight (II Corinthians 5:7). The success symbols of the world will take our eyes away from God. For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Thought to ponder

Are you coming to God so that you can acquire the success symbols of the world?