Does your boss expect you to be perfect in all ways or is he/she content when you follow the rules and do your job? Do your parents expect you to be the valedictorian of your class or are they pleased when you try your best and respect their wishes?
Many times, we are tougher on ourselves than others are. If you call yourself a follower of Christ, are you depressed because you can’t raise the dead and heal the sick? Or perhaps you believe you are a failure because you don’t have the Mercedes or Porsche the TV preacher said God “wanted to give you.”
God has different standards. Listen to an excerpt from the letter to the church in
“I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. Revelation 3:8 (NLT)
Notice that the Lord wasn’t concerned that they didn’t have a great amount of strength. He was however, pleased that they had obeyed His Word (the Bible) and did not deny Him (believed Jesus was their Savior and proud to tell others).
All of us would be a tremendous success in the eyes of God if we were to put those two things at the top of our list every day:
- Obey God’s Word
- Tell others that Jesus is our Lord and Savior
If I may be permitted to paraphrase the ending of Matthew 6:33,
THEN, everything else will fall into place.
SEEK FIRST THE
