Treasured Truth

When striving to live a successful life, we need to understand that when we meet the requirements, God gives us the rewards He has planned for us. He says, “I am going to take you where you cannot go yourself. I’m going to make sure that I bless you.” What a promise!

When trying to live a successful life, we must realize that God has already made provisions for us. What we have to do is wait on him and take a chill pill! We have to say, “God we trust You and we understand that we can totally depend upon You.”

The Bible says, “My son, forget not My law, but let your heart keep My commandments.” There’s the rule for living a successful life. Do you want to live a successful life? Then you need to listen to God and keep His commandments.

When our world is falling apart and we’re trying to keep it all together, we need to understand that everything in our lives needs to be all about Christ. It has to be! In Philippians 4, Paul was saying, ‘If you kill me, I’ll go be with Christ. If you let me live, I’ll live for Christ. And if you make me suffer, I’ll get a crown from Christ. So bring it on. It’s all about Jesus Christ.’ That’s what it’s all about!

Satan’s goal is to destroy our witness as Christians. But when God allows us to be tempted, He’s trying to develop our character. And today, Pastor Ford reminds us that the devil wants us to sin against Christ, but God wants to make us shine for Christ.

God is not trying to change our outcome. He’s trying to change our outlook. Because He knows if He can change our outlook He can then change our outcome. See, because if we’re filled with fret, we can’t be filled with faith. We can’t be fretful and faithful at the same time.

Pastor Ford explains that our eschatological promise is in the future—our “not yet.” But out existential problem is in the present—our “right now.” So we need to understand that we can focus on our “not yet” and it will deal with our “right now.” That’s because we know that our “right now” can’t cancel out our “not yet,” based on the promise that God has already made to us.

When we’re committed to Jesus, we need to have a commitment that’s three dimensional—first to the person of Christ, then to the proclamation of the gospel, then to participation in what He has called us to do and gifted us for.

It costs to be a disciple of Jesus. But guess what—it cost more not to be! Because Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for My sake, will save it.”

As we consider what it really means to be committed to Jesus, Pastor Ford asks us to consider this question—Are we paying the price that it takes to follow the Lord Jesus Christ? Because there is a cost associated with following Him, and it includes self-sacrifice. Have you begun to pick up your cross, die daily and follow Him?