Best Or Rest?
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest.
29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus offers to give us His divine rest. But now we are looking
for another gospel that teaches us otherwise. A different gospel of seeking
the best and not the rest!
Instead of coming to Him, we are seeking famous and glamorous
pastors, prophets and teachers. Instead of learning from Him, we are
learning from others how to quickly get rich and powerful and successful.
Instead of becoming gentle and lowly in heart, we have become
arrogant and proud, always exalting ourselves above others by
debasing them. Instead of getting an easy yoke and a lighter burden,
our loads have become heavier and heavier each new day!
Today, a lot of churches are teaching steps to obtaining good life
and good health! Often known as the prosperity gospel, it boldly
claims that God will give us the best if we give Him our best! God
will grant us all our heart’s desires such as unlimited money in the
bank, a super strong and healthy body, a wonderful and glamorous family, and
boundless happiness and blessings.
But this is not the gospel preached from the Son of a poor carpenter
in Nazareth! He taught that salvation was by believing in Him. And
His definition of a good life was a much simpler one. He taught us
to seek treasures that would not rust, be stolen by thieves and be
destroyed over time. He taught us to worry less about our tomorrows,
and trust God more every day!
Many Christians are asking God not just for their daily bread and
their necessities. They are demanding God to give them all the
luxuries and extravagances of life as rewards and returns for their
great gifts and offerings! They think that this is a divine
exchange. If I give You this, You give me that.
We have heard the three steps to get healed, the five steps to
become prosperous, and the seven steps to get the anointing and
power! The Christian faith has become formulated with formulae and
strategies on how to overcome this and that, and how to obtain this
and that! Earthly rewards are deemed to be more precious than
heavenly ones.
Many people, seeking to escape from their poverty or poor health or
failures in life, have become attracted to this new gospel. As a
result, they become trapped and enslaved in those teachings.
Even when those pastors and preachers are living very terrible and
ungodly lives, these believers and followers will still support and
follow them regardless of the bad testimonies because they also lust after those same things of the
world. They love the world and not God. The love of the Father is
not in them. For all that is in the world such as the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the
Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the
lust of it. But those who do the will of God will abide forever.
Many seek wealth and health, and many seek solutions and answers to
get fast relief from the wounds of their past and the pains of their
present. People want to find quick answers for the depressing and
hopeless diagnoses from their medical doctors, their broken
marriages and terrible divorces or their wayward and rebellious
children. They need to find and get some magical talismans, and some
anointed and powerful verses to
ward off all their miseries in life! They are seeking to obtain
power to overcome the things that are ripping their lives apart! But
they are not seeking God!
Mark 12:41-44
The Widow’s Two Mites
41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the
people put money into the treasury. And many who
were rich put in much.
42 Then one poor widow came and threw in
two mites, which make a quadrans.
43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to
them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more
than all those who have given to the treasury;
44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out
of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”
This true giving really pleases God. Jesus sat near the Temple
money box where people put their gifts and offerings. He watched how
the people put in their money. Many rich people gave large sums of
money. Then a poor widow came and gave two very small copper coins.
These coins were not worth even a penny.
But Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth. This poor
widow gave only two small coins. But she really gave more than all
those rich people. The rich have plenty; they gave only what they
did not need. This woman is very poor. But she gave all she had. And
she needed that money to help her live.”
It is important to note that the widow did not demand or seek any
rewards or returns for her offering. She just gave to God all that
she had! And God knew her heart! She might still be poor after that,
living in poverty and having some health problems and such.
The prosperity gospel looks at the problems of the world as they
are, and promises the solutions. It guarantees that our own beliefs
and deeds will
always find a way and make things happen even without God. If we believe, we just leap, and we will land on
our feet. If we believe, we will be healed. If we believe and
proclaim and declare relentlessly, we will obtain! The focus is always on
us, and not God. If we do this, God will do that!
But the gospel of Christ is not the same. He has already done for
us. It is finished! All we need to do is to believe in what He has
done!
Jesus did not say that He would answer all our prayers and grant all
our heart desires. But He assures us that He hears our prayers and
knows what is good for us!
Some people get healed and some don’t. Some leap and soar while
others tumble and fall again and again. Some die without children,
and some die with many descendants. Some are successful and rich,
and some are not. But many do not find the divine rest that Jesus
gives. They may have the best of the world, but they do not have the
rest of God!
Jeremiah 6:16
Thus says the LORD:
“Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
Remembering Moses, he had to let go and leave the luxuries of life and grand palaces
of Egypt in order to find God in a burning bush at the backside of
the wilderness and desert. A dry and barren land but not forsaken by
God. A place where the maddening crowds are not. And a place to be
still and know that He is God.
And Moses found rest for his weary soul even though his problems
remained and did not go away completely. But as he journeyed with
God daily, he knew that he did not have to worry about his tomorrows by
trusting Him more each day!
Moses did not need the best of life. He had the rest of God, and
that was the best in life!
Written on:
8 July 2024