The Quest For Truth

It is true that God blesses us when we give and give lavishly for the kingdom of God. But giving can become a manifestation of our greed when we give in order to receive more from God. We give away our possesions and money so that God will give us a hundred fold return on our giving and some preachers may even encourage that. But giving to receive more should not be our motivation for giving. We should give out of obedience to the Spirit of God in our hearts. When we feel the impressions in our heart to give a certain thing or amount to certain individuals or groups, we should give out of obedience to the Holy Spirit speaking to us. We should give generously and cheerfully and not out of greed. Many Christians have been disappointed when the hundredfold return did not materialise. They gave away so much expecting even more from God but ended up frustrated because God does not honour greed. He honours an obedient heart.

It is a blessed thing to realise how miserable and unworthy sinners we are without Christ. Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Too many times our problem is a too high estimation of ourselves. We have to be defeated again and again until we come to the realisation in our spirit man that we are indeed wretched people with no hope in ourselves. Before his deliverance and triumph in Christ, the Apostle Paul cried out, “O, wretched man that I man….” We will keep trying to live the Christian life in our own efforts until we realise that we are indeed hopeless cases of humanity. There is no good in us and the good that we want to do, we do not. Rather it is the evil that we do. But the day we realise our hopelessnes is the day we can receive our hope in Christ. It is the day we realise our inability and our sinfulness that is when we can receive the righteousness of Christ. That is what surrender is – when you realise you are not able and only Christ is able and so you give Him total control over your life. Your will is no longer yours. It belongs to Another. Your goals, ambitions and desires take on new meaning as you see them in the light of God’s word. Your life is now totally in the hands of God. You are willing to obey Him no matter what the cost. You surrender to His every command and you give up all human efforts to do the will of God. You will be happy wherever you are whether as a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord or as a mighty warrior in the kingdom of Christ. You die to yourself in order to live for Christ. Without such a death and resurrection we are indeed miserable sinners.