The Right Place

Matthew 6:1 NIV

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

I believe we are indeed living in perilous times. We are in an age where people think that they can win God's approval by being seen to do right before men. We now think that the opinion of man is the opinion of God, or we think that if we can get people to like us, maybe then, it is a sign that God likes us too. We seem to forget one very important fact: man is fickle and unpredictable. During the lifetime of Jesus, didn't we see one particular week when the people were shouting: Hossana, Hossana, and by the end of the same week, were already shouting: Crucify Him, Crucify Him. That is the stuff of man. No wonder Jeremiah declares in Jeremiah 17:5 NIV:
This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord .

Your best intentions will not win you God's approval. God doesn't deal with us on the basis of what we strive to accomplish by our power but what we depend on him to accomplish through us. God's rewards and blessings aren't for hypocrites or men-pleasers; his blessings are for those who have found him and seek to please him in every way depending on the grace of God to achieve what they could never dream of achieving by their own power.

There's a need to raise men whose focus have shifted from what man says to what God says. There's a need to raise a generation whose entire pursuit is the purpose of God alone, not man's personal agendas. God is looking for men that He can entrust with the deep things of the kingdom, men whose hearts have been completely given over to God and who are not distracted by the temporary dazzling lights of the world and its distractions. Am I the man God is looking for? Can He depend on me? His time of favour is here.