God helps those who help themselfThat was what I used to believe back in my teens. As I continue to learn more and more about God, I've realized that this is not true. But at the same time, God isn't asking us to sit back and not do anything. So what exactly is God asking from us?
Today in my quiet time, God showed me what it's all about. It's about having faith in Him and keeping the faith. We don't do good works or be successful to futher our faith; it is because we have faith that we do good works and be successful.
There's a difference there. It's not very apparent on the outside but it's very different on the inside where it matters. God looks at a man's heart, not his works. The Bible doesn't say man was saved by their works. Rather, they were saved by their faith (2 Timothy 1:9).
If we could work out our salvation with just good works, the Bible would be full of laws on how to live our lives. In addition to the 10 commandments, we would have laws governing sex, lies, smoking and every social issue we have to the detail. It would just be a book of law. In fact, we wouldn't need to believe in God; we would just need to have good morals. We would just need to be like the Pharisees!
Now, no matter what was said about the Pharisees, we have to admit that they were very good in keeping the law. In fact, you can say they were about the most morally right people in those days. They were not only leaders, but leaders of upstanding morals. Think of all the good moral things we should do, they probably did them all. They wouldn't smoke, they wouldn't lie, they wouldn't sleep around. They don't steal, they don't kill, they don't break any laws. They give according to what the law say to give. They were very good morally!
Then, why did Jesus rebuke them? Because He saw their hearts. They were more concern with being seen as morally upstanding citizens. Their love of the public's adoration surpassed their love for God. They weren't in it to glorify God, they were only interested in glorifying themselves. What they did was all for themselves, not motivated out of love.
In the same way, we can be the same. We can do good works without having faith in God. We can even do it for good reasons like because we want to help others. Even non-believers can make a stand not to have sex outside of marriage. Atheists can live a life without telling lies. There are many non-profit organizations that help people but are not run by Christians. So quite clearly, we do not need God in our lives before we can help man.
So then, why is faith so important that God would say, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)" Jesus even said that the first commandment is, "you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Matthew 12:30)" In fact, without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6)!
So if faith is the priority, then there's a very good strategy! We'll just live life how we want and then, only confess and have faith in God on our deathbed. That way, we get to live a carefree life and we can still go to Heaven. And it's something that can work! One of the thief who was hung with Jesus confessed that Jesus is God. And Jesus replied that the thief is with Him now in paradise (Luke 23: 39-43).
But why would you want to do that when there's a better option? It's to confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God today! After you have done that, you'll live a life with Him in you and you find that, life is so much better after that. You go from strength to strength and you find a life worth living for. As I said earlier, God looks at our hearts. When Jesus comes into our lives, He will give us His love. And His love enables us to go out and do good works. James 2:14-26 explains that faith with works is dead. We show our faith by doing good works.
But wait a minute, you say. Doesn't that bring us back to the fact that we need to do good work? Isn't God asking us to help ourselves and work for it? While that is partially true, it's not the whole truth. We don't help ourselves and do good work to further our faith, rather our faith enables us to help ourselves and do good work! With faith, we know that God is with us and will bless us when we walk in His path. So we do our best knowing that God is in control. We do not fear about the results or the future because we know that God has taken care of it. We do good works because God has given us a heart to reach out and do good works.
It's very hard to do good works without faith. In whatever we do, there will be those who interpret it as being bad as well as those who see it as good. Take any big decisions in history (American Civil War, the bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, US invading Iraq, etc.) and you'll find opinion is divided on it. With such diverse opinions, can we actually tell what is good works and what isn't? We can, with God. Because God will show the way and God is good. So whatever He asks of us, we know that it's good works. We know it will bless people. We know, it will glorify His name and lead others to know of His love.
So good works does not lead to faith, good works justify our faith. We must first have faith then we must do good works to prove our faith. But it's not a burden, because God will give us the passion for the good works. We will want to do it because God has freed us from anything that would hinder us from doing good works. We do not do works and say God is with us; where is God in works that man can do? Nor do we sit back and let God take care of our lives; how would we show the world that God is good when we do nothing? We do good works and we believe by faith that He will bring about the result from the good works. We embark on projects He gave us knowing that we cannot do it with our own strength but He will make it happen. We trust Him to work it out. All our part is: to follow His instructions to the letter and let Him make it happen.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11
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