There are many ways believers act no differently from the nonbeliever, but there is one way that is particularly bothersome. The nonbeliever doesn’t believe in the Lord, so he thinks he must make it on his own. Then there are believers who know the Lord, but they act as if they must make it in life on their own. Both fail to realize that the Lord is a heavenly father Who is interested in helping us live successfully here on earth as we are given to serving Him.
We see this desire of His for us in the book of Joshua, chapter 1:5 when God says to Joshua, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, So I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you”. When God says He will not leave nor forsake you, He isn’t saying He will simply be there standing by to watch you struggle through life; He is saying that you should know He will be a part of your life to help you live successfully in all you do. God doesn’t raise his children to failures.
So, what did Moses and Joshua do that we do not do today? They gave God the type of effort He was looking for. They gave Him a complete effort to be something that could only be fully realized when God finished things. Moses and Joshua were farmers of sorts. They planted and they watered then they stood by and watched God give the final increase to their work. So, what about us? Are we giving our effort at life to Him or are we doing it all on our own? Are we planting and watering and trying to bring about the increase from our efforts ourselves? Are we trying to finish the things we start ourselves? Are we putting the period at the end of our own efforts? Are we trying to live a successful spiritual life by using the ways of the world?
So how then can we give the type of effort that God would say to us “I can work with that”? Well, first like Moses and Joshua, we have to have the courage and strength of self to know that we do not live and behave like the world acts and behave. The world tells us to reap much so we can take care of ourselves; but we have to have the courage and strength to know that we must sow more than we expect to reap to take care of others as God cares for us. God can work with that. Then the world tells us that only the strong survives so we must listen only to ourselves and be better than others; but we must have the humility to know that we must have something higher than our own thinking and higher than the world’s thinking in order to survive. There is always someone greater than you; there is always someone who has greater knowledge and more resources than you but there is never anyone higher than the Lord Who is with you and beside you.
If you want to work out you own life on your own, you had better be stronger than the next person of the world who will rise up against you and take what you have sown and watered for himself. But if you want to give the Lord an effort He can work with, learn to stay close to Him and learn from Him for then He says, “you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” because He will fulfill His promise to complete what you have started. Learn to give Him a dependent life He can work with and He will give an increase to your obedient and humble effort. Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 