Keys to Successful Living

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction…My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.  Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.  So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.” –Proverbs 1:7; 3:1-4 (ESV).

Many view Proverbs 1:7 as the key to the whole book of Proverbs.  Indeed, to hold God in awe and reverence and to have a personal relationship with Him is the beginning point of successful living. And what can we count as success?  Not necessarily accruing possessions or earning prestige and acclaim among peoples.  The wise man who penned the Proverbs knew that to seek the Lord and to please Him was the ultimate pursuit.  Jesus also emphasized “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).  In advising that his son should follow the way of steadfast love and faithfulness all of his life, the writer of proverbs called to mind a covenantal tradition of binding love and faithfulness about the neck and writing them on the tablets and wearing them close to the heart.  This was a symbolic way of emphasizing the importance of the commandments.  In that way they symbolically made the fear of the Lord, love and steadfastness a part of daily living.  The promise is that this lifestyle will produce favor in the sight of God and man.

The writer of Proverbs makes this way of life seem simple and attainable.  Was he aware of all the pitfalls of daily living?  Of the struggle to make a living as well as to make a life?  The buffets and setbacks that occur along the road of attaining goals?  My thinking is that because he did know the struggles involved in living a good life, he could speak authoritatively about how to set a course for successful living.  He is talking about the things that really matter here:  peace, contentment, favor with God and man.  To follow sound instruction and to live by the principles of God’s Word are major keys to a life of contentment and peace.  Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe, a noted Bible scholar, states:  “Obedience to the Word can add years to your life and life to your years”  (The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: Old Testament.  Colorado Springs:  Cook. 2007, p. 1063).

In this forty-day period of concerted prayer for our nation, we have talked about and pled for America to turn again to the Lord so the He will hear and answer our pleas.  Here in Proverbs are the keys to successful living for individuals who make up our nation.  The basis for changes must of necessity begin with individuals, people, one-by-one, as we evaluate our own lives and seek to align our way of living with those we learn at the feet of our Master Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ.  What will we give up?  What changes will we make?  What difference will this call to repentance and faith make with us?

Prayer.  I confess, Lord, that I have been selfish and self-seeking.  I have many times thought more of my own welfare than the welfare of others.  May my resolve to be steadfast and prayerful, faithful and responsive to Your will make a difference day by day where I live.  Thus, You have promised that one-by-one, we can be as light in the darkness.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Be Not Anxious

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?...Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.   But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”  -Matthew 6:25, 32b-34 (ESV).

Anxiety seems to be an ever-present condition of mind against which we must guard.  Jesus, knowing this, gave some excellent teaching about how the Christian is to handle anxiety.  If we make the right choices as Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:19-24, there is no need for anxiety.  Jesus gives two examples to help us prevent worry:

            The birds that busily fly about building nests, caring for their young, singing beautiful songs do not sow nor reap nor gather into barns, but the Heavenly Father provides for them.

            The lilies of the field—or any beautiful wildflowers, for that matter—do not toil or spin, yet even Solomon with all his richness and glory could not compare to the lilies’ beauty.  One has but to see the fields of wildflowers in the Holy Land (or here in our beautiful land), probably spread out on the hillside even as Jesus talked to his disciples, to know the truth of what the Master said.

To be anxious, then, shows a lack of trust in God’s provision.  This does not mean that God wants us to be lazy and expect everything we need to be provided.  But we are to view the needs of life in proper perspective and not worry about or be overly anxious concerning them.  To be anxious demonstrates a lack of trust in God who promises to faithfully provide what we need.  And the formula for placing ourselves in position to receive all this bounty from the Lord is to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”  The teachings in the Sermon on the Mount to this point have been helping  us understand what these words mean.  We repeat thoughtfully the Lord’s Prayer (the disciples’ prayer) and we gain insight to seeking the kingdom first.  Hallow and honor God.  We trust God to give us our daily needs.  We are not to be slothful and lazy, but apply the God-given talents we have to earning an honest living and managing what we make according to God’s plan. We are to forgive others even as we are forgiven.  We are to guard against temptations and not yield to them.  And while we go about the tasks of living out our time on earth, we keep the faith and seek to lead others in the way.  And we rid ourselves of anxiety, a negative and defeating attitude.  Someone has aptly stated:  “The average person crucifies himself between two thieves—the regrets of yesterday and the worries about tomorrow.”  Anxiety is a no-no for the Christian.  This is not to say that we are not to be concerned about ourselves and those about us.  But there is a difference between concern and anxiety.  Concern seeks and finds solutions; anxiety robs of effectiveness in whatever we do. “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?’ (v. 27).A formula is woven into this teaching of Jesus concerning overcoming anxiety.  First is faith:  We trust God to meet our needs.  Next is the Father—knowing God loves His children and provides for them.  And next  think first:—seek God first, and His righteousness so that He, not we, can be glorified.

How glorious it is not to be anxious but to allow God to work things out.  There’s much truth in the hymn we used to sing frequently:  “Take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there.”  Anxiety distracts the believer from his intended course, and it accomplishes nothing of value.  I wrote a poem once entitled “One Day at a Time” that goes like this:

            “If we could but the secret find of one day at a time,

            We’d borrow not tomorrow’s fears and neither look behind

            To yesterday’s regrets and tears nor rue today’s firm tread

             But fill life full of love and joy and happiness instead.

             In our concern to push ahead we grab and gulp and pine,

            Not understanding precious peace of one day at a time.

            Lord, grant us patience thus to live and give us grace to find

            The sheer delight of present tense, of one day at a time.

Beware of What the Eye Sees and of Serving Two Masters

“The eye is the lamp of the body.  So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.” – Matthew 6:22-24 (ESV).

Jesus continues to teach in these verses about the futility of divided loyalties for the Christian. “You cannot serve God and mammon” from the familiar King James Version is translated “money” in the New English and other versions.  And how are we gradually tempted to have an inordinate and greedy love for money?  How do we allow the pursuit of riches to become our master?  How do we become slaves to what we sometimes term “the almighty dollar”?  Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body.”  In Jewish literature and thought, “the eye” was similar to “the heart” with both meaning the center of one’s inner life.  Still in the context of the subject Jesus had just treated of “laying up treasures in heaven,” He turns to this instruction using the eye as the instrument of our body whereby we observe, then covet, then turn to the darkness of greed and idolizing what wealth can bring.  Making money our chief pursuit amounts to making it an idol in our life, and nothing should be placed above God.  He demands our supreme devotion.  And where does the temptation begin?  With the eye, with seeing first and wanting next.  We so often hear, and even tend to follow this adage:  “Let your conscience be your guide.”  But conscience first must be trained to be pure and focused on what is right and good before we can trust it to be our guide.  Likewise, the eye which is the organ of sight and therefore becomes a symbol of the insight we receive to live by, must be trained and controlled not to go astray and lead us into temptation.  Conscience is like the eye.  When the eye is in a healthy state, the whole body is full of light.  But when diseases of the eye such as we know in modern ophthalmology as cataracts or macular degeneration afflict the eye, vision becomes greatly impaired.  When the eye is unhealthy, it is like darkness enters the body.  When we focus on the things of the world and allow them to take our allegiance instead of our love for and service to God, we have a bad case of spiritual impaired vision.  Our focus is taken off the Lord Jesus and placed on the things of the world.  “Beware!”  Jesus warned.

Virtue can so easily shade off into vice almost imperceptibly.  First we see; then we want.  First we wade a little into the world’s way and before we know it we are swimming in its deep waters of separation from God.  Jesus knew where that temptation lay for so many people.  It is all bound up in our desire to gain more of this world’s treasures—or “worldliness” called “mammon” in the Aramaic language and translated into a term we can well understand—money. Jesus saw the two major allegiances of man as to God or to mammon, to God or to the ungodly pursuit of wealth.  “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (6:21).  Jesus concludes with a statement we must take to heart and apply to our lives.  It is a matter of undivided loyalty:  It amounts to believing and acting upon this strong admonition: “You cannot serve (be a slave to) God and money.”  This is Jesus speaking.  We should heed and follow.

Where Are Your Treasures Stored?

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” –Matthew 6:19-21 (ESV).

Most of us have some treasures here on earth we hold dear.  Is it the “rat-pack” tendency in some of us (women, it seems, are prone to this characteristic) to accrue possessions with special meaning and value that is perhaps not in their monetary worth at all?  These we call “treasures” because they have deep sentimental value to us, recall a special person who made a gift to us, or a special occasion which we recall by the memento we’ve collected and hold onto.  Again, treasures may be things of monetary worth—perhaps a piece of furniture, a painting, a house and grounds, a car—the list could go on.

Jesus taught that the righteousness of kingdom citizens—Christians—needs to be worked out in perspective of both finite time and eternity.  He urged that we “lay up treasures in heaven.”  The question rightly comes:  How do we follow this admonition of our Lord?  We have a choice between activities that lead to greater earthly reward in the present life and those that store up greater future rewards in heaven.  Jesus gave insight into the meaning of laying up treasures in heaven elsewhere in the gospels.  In Mark 8:34-38 we gain insight into what Jesus meant by following Him and laying up treasures in heaven: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  For what can a man give in return for his soul?  For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”  In Luke 12:13-21 Jesus gave a parable of the rich man who kept amassing abundant possessions and decided he would “eat, drink and be merry’ (v. 19).  But death came to the man and his treasures were left.  “So is one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).

Is this to say that we are to take no stock in earthly treasures?  Are we not to seek to provide those things that make life more comfortable and livable, like a good house, adequate money to meet needs, food, clothing, even some pleasure?  We have a moral responsibility to care for those in our family, and the necessities of living take effort and time to earn money for the needs of those in our care.  The important choice here is where our priorities are.  Are we greedy and grasping, with the idea of “the more I have the more I want?”  Have we no feeling of responsibility of bringing our tithes into the storehouse of God (the church) on the first day of the week?  Have we no desire to participate in authentic missions both with money, time and prayer? Our choices about possessions and what priority we place on them are directly related to our growth and development as a Christian.  You may have heard it said, “It is not wrong to possess things, but it is wrong for things to possess us.”  Materialism will enslave the mind and heart.  A proper attitude toward earning money through honest work and avoiding covetousness in possessions is Jesus’ way for us.  Laying up treasures in heaven is using all to which we have been entrusted for the glory of God.  We make our choices after deep consideration and prayer.

Jesus Teaches on Forgiveness and Fasting

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” –Matthew 6:14-18 (ESV).

As the note at the end of yesterday’s devotional indicated, The Lord’s Prayer was the subject of devotionals for June 17-22, so I move ahead here to Jesus’ next teachings after prayer, which are forgiveness and fasting.

Bearing grudges for wrongs—or even assumed wrongs—against us is one of the sins we have to guard against and confess.  Harder still is wiping the memory of the wrongs others have done from our minds, truly forgiving the person or persons, and then moving ahead to rebuild relationships.  In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus teaches us that there is a direct relationship between our forgiving others and the Heavenly Father forgiving us.  Jesus had just taught, in the last tenet of the Lord’s prayer, “”Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  This measure of forgiveness was not speaking of the initial forgiveness after confession of sins that the sinner experiences at the time of salvation and turning to God.  This has to do with the manner of living.  When we sin, after becoming a Christian—and we all do stray and err—it is seeking forgiveness and our decision to return again to the way of the Lord, living upright and holy lives.  But then, if we have done wrong to others, or others have done wrongs to us, and we hold onto those thoughts of deeds that separate us and break relationships, then our Father cannot forgive one who is not forgiving of others.  Hard expectations?  Yes!  But then the Christian way is a high road, one that shows distinctiveness from the world’s way.  Restoration with God after we stray is linked to how well we can forgive others.  How do we measure up?

Fasting was a common practice among the Jews in Jesus’ day.  Those who wanted others to know they were fasting often went about the streets in sackcloth and ashes, with their forehead marked with a blob of dark ashes.  By law, one fast a year was required of all faithful Jews on the Day of Atonement.  While fasting, in addition to abstaining from food, people were to humble themselves by praying, mourning and wearing sackcloth, a scratchy, poor type of robe.  As with giving, fasting is to be a matter of the heart between the person and God.  We do not call attention to fasting by announcing it in the assembly or showing by pious and devout-seeming behavior that we are fasting.  That calls attention to the person, so that people possibly laud the one fasting, rather than giving God the glory for the religious action.  “When you fast” indicates that Jesus expected His disciples to fast, but his warnings regarded motives.  As in giving and in praying, if our fasting becomes a means of public demonstration of our devoutness, then that, itself, becomes our reward.  It amounts to a boast such as “look how devout I am; I’m giving up this or that for the Lord!”  This can only bring attention on the person performing the act of fasting and the glory intended for God is not present in such an action of self-adulation. In our churches today, not as much emphasis is given to fasting, except during the week of Lent leading up to Easter.  Then, it is mainly individual choice that leads person to fast or not to fast.  I have recently heard of a well-known church’s pastor in North Georgia calling the entire congregation to fast for a week in order to make sacrifices both individually and corporately for a large undertaking of expansion and mission.  The week was observed and the results were a blessing in what that particular church aimed to do.  Again, fasting was not to call attention to themselves but to focus on a need that would reach others for the kingdom of God.  If we fast, we are to be sure it is for God’s glory and not to call attention to our own piousness.

Jesus Teaches on Prayer

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret...And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” –Matthew 6:6-8 (ESV).

Prayer is one of the most intimate practices of the Christian’s spiritual life.  Think how amazing prayer is:  We can approach our Heavenly Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, sustainer and keeper of the Universe, and He knows and hears us individually.  To think of this relationship with the Heavenly Father through prayer is more than awesome. Jesus gave us some very good instruction on how not to pray and how to pray.  First, don’t be hypocritical when you pray.  He is speaking mainly here of public prayer, if we are called upon to pray in our church assemblies or in the presence of others.  Don’t be like the hypocrites—the mask-wearers—who pray to be heard of men and are noted for their pious-seeming and loftily-worded prayers.  The rewards of such praying are that they are heard and adulated for their beautiful words. Be sincere when you pray, even in public.

True praying is in secret, with only the one who prays and God hearing.  Then we can empty our deepest longings, express our fears and shortcomings, confess our sins, seek God’s face, exalt in His presence, and ask Him whatever we need to talk to Him about without fear of ridicule or reprisal from others.  Like child to Father, our secret-place prayers are on a personal and intimate level. Jesus gave a marvelous promise with this kind of praying:  “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Jesus’ next admonition about our praying can apply equally to our public and our private prayers:  “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them.”  Sometimes we grow into lazy habits in our prayers. Prayers become routine and repetitive.  Jesus is warning us against such unthoughtful praying and prayers that repeat  the same patterns of speech, much like a broken record.  Remember that God knows what we have need of even before we ask Him.  Yet when we are sincere and earnest in our praying, and from our heart we truly seek God, He hears and answers.  We can be assured of that.  Scholarly commentary says about prayer, God always answers.  Sometimes He says “yes,” to our pleas, sometimes “no” and sometimes “wait awhile.”  A little later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches this about prayer:  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.”  (Matthew 7:7-8).  Prayer is an important daily discipline and privilege of the Christian.  Alfred Lord Tennyson, great English poet, wrote:  “More things are wrought through prayer than this world dreams of.” 

[Note:  These devotionals examined the Lord’s Prayer, day-by-day from Matthew 6:9-14 on the dates of June 17-22, seven days.  Because these verses have already been used in this series , tomorrow we will go to Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness and fasting, which come immediately after what we call the Lord’s Prayer.]

Examine Your Motives in Good Deeds and Giving

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.  Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.  Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” –Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV).

Jesus enters a period of His teaching which develops the theme of living the Christian life in the real world.  He warns that practicing righteous acts, giving to the needy and praying can, if the disciple is not careful, inadvertently or deliberately call attention to the doer so that he does these acts of Christian righteousness and piety to be seen of men and to receive praise from men.  He warns strongly against being hypocritical in behavior and in good deeds.  Public acts of obedience are honorable, but if they are done merely to be seen of men, then there is no reward from the Father in heaven. 

To be a hypocrite—pretending one is something he is not—uses the Greek word for “play-acting,” or wearing different masks, as on a stage, in order to be seen in the role of various characters.  We can do the right thing for the wrong reasons, and thus be a hypocrite.  The Pharisees were known for making public ado about their giving.  This public show of their charity was the only reward for their giving, for the Father in heaven was certainly not pleased with their calling attention to their gifts and generosity.  The only reward they will receive is the public acclaim they seek for their action. 

“Let not your left hand know what your right hand does” is a metaphor for secrecy in giving.  The best Jewish thought held to giving alms without boasting or making public what the gift was.  In the Temple alms boxes were placed strategically to provide charity gifts for widows and orphan children and other needs of the Jewish community.  Most of the givers did not make a public outcry of how much they gave, and that was good.  Those who tended to proclaim their generosity for the adulation of men were condemned by Jesus.  Our motives for giving are always open to God.  We should give from an open, willing heart, and that not for praise from our fellowman, or for bragging purposes of how much we gave.  Now with our income tax returns requiring that we show proof of our gifts to charitable and authentic religious causes, we know that those who are accountants of such funds know what we give.  As we say, “times have changed,” and we have to comply with the laws of our land.  But even in our modern means of accounting for our gifts, we can still have a good conscience, one that does not seek adulation of men, but seeks the approval of God who looks on the heart and knows whether we give willingly and cheerfully.

Behavior Befitting a Christian

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” –Ephesians 4:29-32 (ESV.  Read Ephesians 4:17-32).

These verses from Ephesians are part of a passage in which Paul is setting forth the characteristics and behavior of a Christian.  “By their fruits you shall know them,”  Christ taught.  And Paul, who was instructing the believers at Ephesus (and subsequently Christians everywhere) in how to live the new life in Christ, gave some very firm advice on how a Christian should live a separate and distinctive life of holiness.

Watch what you say.  Our words should not corrupt but build up and should convey grace to those who hear.  All gossip, idle talk, vain repetitions, cursing and slander should be far removed from a Christian’s talk.  We all know that it is easy to hear vain talk, and a temptation to pass on tidbits of gossip that may or may not be true but certainly can harm the persons about whom these are told.  Paul says firmly, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths.”  He had just admonished in verse 25 to “put away falsehood.”  How we talk is a measure of our Christian commitment.  James also warned against the tongue and the damage it can do:  “From the same mouth come blessings and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:10).

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”  Our sin “grieves”—brings sorrow to—the Holy Spirit.  His mark upon and work in the life of the Christian is to “seal” or designate, as though marked by the assurance of God’s presence.  God pours out His Holy Spirit on all of His children as a guarantee (an earnest) of their share in the kingdom of Heaven.  Believers are the Lord’s especially treasured possession, kept for the day of redemption from this world of trouble and sin and anticipating glorification .It matters how we live here.  The Holy Spirit is an indwelling presence to lead us to live lives different from the world.

Paul says the New Life has certain behaviors squelched.  These are wrath and anger and clamor and slander…and malice.”  These are all characteristics to which we are prone in a worldly state.  But with cultivation of the virtues of gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and love, we can overcome the ulterior behaviors that characterize unredeemed persons.  We must make decided efforts to put off these behaviors unbecoming to a Christ-follower.

Then Paul gives the opposite of worldly behavior.  He urges “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  Jesus taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).  The behavior befitting a Christian takes diligence, prayer and practice.  It takes remembering that we are different from the world because we belong to Christ. And the Holy Spirit Himself, whom we are not to grieve by falling into sin, is beside us to guide us into truth and goodness.  Thank God for His ever-present help in assisting us to live a changed and different life in Christ!