-idols always disappoint and enslave. They do not bring the satisfaction you hope fornor expect.
-an idols competes with God in our lives.
-Things like sex and money are good gifts from God, but it is important to enjoy them within God's rules. It is the same with idols. When I schedule my time and existence around something, in have crossed the line and made it an idol. I have taken the gift and made it an idol - misusing that gift from God.
-when you make something an idol, God by His nature cannot bless your efforts in it. And any success you ever have in something is directly related to how God chooses to bless it.
You have to identify the idols in your life and then replace them with something good and of God. If you don't get down to the rroot cause of the idol then it will just manifest itself in some other way. Therefore find the cause, replace it and speak scriptural truth into your life to help yourself change permanently by "the renewing of your mind".
The reasons for my idols is a desire for significance. I want to be recognised and praised for my accomplishments. I like being the centre of attention. I am not proud of this but it is true. I need to find my significance in surrendering to God and glorifying Him alone for anything that He chooses to accomplish through me. " He must become greater, I must become less."
It is embarrassing to think of how often I have tried to receive praise for things accomplished in my life. I must give the glory to God. He accomplished it. I can enjoy the process of Him accomplishing things through me - after all, that is really cool. The key however is that I must not delight in praising myself, but rather God.
If I am truly delighting in the Lord, if my greatest joy on life is Him alone and not just His blessings, than I will delight in glorifying Him and have no desire to glorify myself. I must look at everything through the lense of what He has accomplished through me and rejoice and praise Him for it.
Friday, 13 February 2015
Friday, 6 February 2015
What we can learn about confidence from King David
When David fought Goliath he was supremely confident. He was confident because he had God on his side. He was confident in the abilities that God had given him and allowed him to work to develop.
It is important to realize that David did have to develop the talents. God gave Him natural abilities as a warrior, but he had to work to develop those talents. The extent that they were developed directly related to his hard David worked, but also the extent to which God chose to bless those efforts. It is important to realizethis in anything we pursue as Christians. We must seek God for what He would have us pursue, how He would have us pursue it, and then work our hardest to get the best we possibly can at it as an act of worship and obedience to the Lord. While we work our hardest we must work as if our success depends on us, but then live realising that it completely depends on how God chooses to bless our efforts.
Going back to confidence, David was confident every time he went into battle. It wouldn't make sense if he wasn't. In order to do your best in anything, confidence is required. It is a simple fact that you cannot put forth your best effort, or perform your best at something if you are not confident.
So the next question is how do we as Christians behave confidently without being prideful, cocky and/or arrogant? I believe we prevent against these things by ensuring that our focus is on representing Him well, and glorifyihadGod rather than ourselves. If we look at our circumstances through this lenses it prevents against our attitudes becoming sinful.
For instance, let's look at David when He fought Goliath. He had worked hard and practiced to develop his skills with a slingshot. He then went out there and was confident in the abilities that God had allowed him to develop through practice. Having confidence in the skills that God had blessed his efforts in developing - this in itself was an act of worship. It was like saying, "thank you God for allowing me to develop these skills. I only developed them to this extent because you have allowed me to -because you blessed my efforts. I am going to worship you now by going out and doing my best for your glory, and in doing my best being confident in the skills you have allowed me to develop". In other words, he worked hard to develop the skills, realized any skill development was directly related to how God chose to bless his efforts, and then on order to do his best with those skills as an act of worship to God, it was necessary to be confident. He then went out and did his best and was surrendered to allow God to orchestrate the results as He saw fit.
It is important to realize that David did have to develop the talents. God gave Him natural abilities as a warrior, but he had to work to develop those talents. The extent that they were developed directly related to his hard David worked, but also the extent to which God chose to bless those efforts. It is important to realizethis in anything we pursue as Christians. We must seek God for what He would have us pursue, how He would have us pursue it, and then work our hardest to get the best we possibly can at it as an act of worship and obedience to the Lord. While we work our hardest we must work as if our success depends on us, but then live realising that it completely depends on how God chooses to bless our efforts.
Going back to confidence, David was confident every time he went into battle. It wouldn't make sense if he wasn't. In order to do your best in anything, confidence is required. It is a simple fact that you cannot put forth your best effort, or perform your best at something if you are not confident.
So the next question is how do we as Christians behave confidently without being prideful, cocky and/or arrogant? I believe we prevent against these things by ensuring that our focus is on representing Him well, and glorifyihadGod rather than ourselves. If we look at our circumstances through this lenses it prevents against our attitudes becoming sinful.
For instance, let's look at David when He fought Goliath. He had worked hard and practiced to develop his skills with a slingshot. He then went out there and was confident in the abilities that God had allowed him to develop through practice. Having confidence in the skills that God had blessed his efforts in developing - this in itself was an act of worship. It was like saying, "thank you God for allowing me to develop these skills. I only developed them to this extent because you have allowed me to -because you blessed my efforts. I am going to worship you now by going out and doing my best for your glory, and in doing my best being confident in the skills you have allowed me to develop". In other words, he worked hard to develop the skills, realized any skill development was directly related to how God chose to bless his efforts, and then on order to do his best with those skills as an act of worship to God, it was necessary to be confident. He then went out and did his best and was surrendered to allow God to orchestrate the results as He saw fit.
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