Key Verse: "Woe
to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated
the false prophets.
Luke 6:26
Wait a minute. Jesus
must have it all wrong here. What's
wrong with being well fed? What's wrong
with having plenty of money? What's wrong
with a little laughter? Why, right in
the declaration of our independence, here in America, none less than Thomas
Jefferson himself said that "we are endowed by our Creator with certain
inalienable rights,” and the three listed are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. Is Jesus saying that's all
wrong?
It's understandable that these words would be comforting in
Jesus’ day. Back then, most of his
audience were poor, oppressed by the rich religious rulers and also by the
Romans. It may be understandable that the
poor of Jesus' day would want those who were seen as the oppressors, to get
what's coming to them. Here in modern
times however, we wouldn't think that way.
No, we're more enlightened and gracious than that, aren't we?
This is not the last time that Jesus will exercise caution
to those who are comfortable here on earth.
There will be at least two more times when He will issue warnings to
call us to reconsider where our true allegiance or true assurance is and
challenge us to ask ourselves, "Why?"
It is so easy to fall into the trap of believing that we are
blessed by God when all is well. It is
so easy to think that we are out of God's will when the reverse is true. Our confidence in God, however, cannot depend
on our circumstances, nor can our hope in Him depend on our behavior, or works. Circumstances change and behavior is often
based on our feelings, perceptions and emotions. We can often become frustrated with ourselves
that our behavior does not better reflect our gratitude for the grace we have
been shown. What a blessing that our
hope is not lost when we fail.
Our hope must be based on Christ and what He did for us on
the cross. It is through Him that we
will be satisfied. It is through Him
that we will be comforted. It is through
Him that we will receive any reward that He deems we deserve. We will often be disappointed when we look to
the things of this world to give us what only He can give. If we think our security is in our earnings
and pension, we only need to look at recent stock market history to see how
fragile that crutch is. The same can be
said for jobs, friends and health. That
is why Jesus says, "woe,” here to those who are comfortable. He knows how unreliable earthly things are
and how reliable He will always be.
I remember hearing a story once about the advice the boss gave
his construction workers the first day on the job building a high rise building,
"Never trust the wind.” Of course,
the higher you go the stronger the wind. It's tempting to lean on the wind when it is
blowing hard to lend extra support, but winds can also fade and be unreliable
as to their strength and consistency. We
must learn to have the same attitude toward our earthly things. They can easily fade away and when they do,
if they are what we've been leaning on, we will fall. God's love is the one thing that will never
fail. Praise God for that! Our ears may itch to hear the opposite, but
that would be a false prophesy. Don't
trust it. Fully Rely On God.
Hymn: "Built on the Rock”
Also, Kristian Stanfill's "One Thing Remains”
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