from Pleasant Grove Baptist Church http://bit.ly/2DQ25sY
via IFTTT Have you ever made plans? Consider this: in those plans, who was in charge? Did you consider yourself in charge, doing what you think is best? What you desire? Arrogance! We are not in charge of our life. If we were, would we not each choose to live forever? If you do not choose the day your die, how do we think we choose what our future holds? Such arrogance to consider that we are in control. Reality is, none of us know what tomorrow will bring. We may know what we choose to do tomorrow, assuming nothing else happens, but we do not know what will be at the end of the day. Even in this world of modern medicine, science, man's greatest collection of knowledge, we do not know what happens next. Not the next day, not the next minute. It is still all in God's hands. Some would say random chance. Some would say that the impossibility of knowing the future means there is no plan at all, that life is no more than one random event after another. But that is as errant as saying that you yourself are in control. There is a plan, and total control, but it is not in our hands, it it in God's hands. All through scripture we see God raising up a nation, a king. Prospering them exceedingly. It's easy to see the purpose from the pages of scripture, but put yourself in their shoes. Everything is going well. Everything you do works. Prosperity, success, it's in your hands, your ideas. The success enjoyed proves that, or so you think. But then a page of scripture is turned and we see that the prosperity was brought by God, not because the king was doing it right, not because he was smart or wise or capable, but because God needed a strong nation for a purpose. When that purpose was complete the nation failed and diminished to nothing. It wasn't the king after all, but the people assumed it was! The king assumed it was him! How often have you done something and it succeeded? Did you feel proud of your own ability? Or did you thank God for His grace? Was it you, or Him? Arrogance tells us we are something, that we succeeded, that we are special, good at something. And it is all a lie. Everything in our life is in God's hands. He prospers and He destroys as He sees fit. We, actually have little to do with it. So wait... If we don't bring success or failure through our talents, if success is all in God's hands, what of all the training, education, self help books? Yes, what of them. If God is picking and choosing blessing, how can one person's approach be valuable? Will following that approach bring success to another? Is this to not in God's hands? You see, the point of all this is, it's all Jesus. We do what we do, but He grants success or failure. We actually play little of any part of it. So it is pointless to look to the successful and try to emulate their methods. It's pointless to praise one man over his success. It's a lie to think that one is greater than another. It's a lie to think that any man "did" something. Arrogance. It manifests itself in or making of plans without attributing the future to God. It manifests in our praising any man as successful of himself. It manifests in our seeking "the way to do it" apart from God's will. It manifests in our copying the successful hoping to find the same success by doing what they did. And all of that, is evil. It is the very sin that bright death and suffering until our world, seeking the knowledge of good and evil so that we can be like God and do things or own way. No, give it all to Jesus. Follow His specific will for your life day by day. Enjoy His success by merely following, seeking the wisdom of scripture, and spending time listening to the Holy Spirit. He is our guide, our teacher. He brings success. Seek Him first. It's all Jesus, never man.
