Is life hard? Is living for Jesus hard? Is succeeding hard? Is finding happiness hard? These questions are like a lot of other questions in life. Everyone has an opinion, but, an opinion is the result of your own life view. What we see today in politics, in the church, and in personal lives is people have opinions, but, they lack having convictions. An opinion is swayed by emotions, and changing tides. Conviction on the other hand is a moral standard, principles by which you live by. The constitution that we live by in America is more than just an opinion, it is the conviction of men that sat down and drafted it. Changing the constitution can be done, but, it is not done easily. We lack men, woman, boys and girls of conviction today. Our society today has become people lacking conviction that just does whatever they feel like doing at any given time or moment of the day.
Along with conviction is your word. A man's word used to be his bond. We are living in a generation that is careless with their words. If we knew that everything that we spoke was going to be requied of us, we would have a lot less talking heads in America. We are a generation of promise breakers, and we spout words off like they are nothing.
God's Word, the Bible is my conviction. I will speak it, live it, teach it to others, and guide my daily actions by it, even if it is not the most comfortable thing to do. God's Word is wisdom, and when we live by his Word, we find that our lives begin to conform to blessings, and peace within.
What has our generation done? What are a few of the philosophies that are destroying us?
1. I will follow my own heart and let it guide me.
Most of the people that I know today that are in a real mess in life got in that place by following the desires of their own heart. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know
it? Jeremiah 17:9 Jesus said over and over again. "FOLLOW ME" The psalmist said, I will follow the precepts of God, I will follow the straight path of the principles of God. We must follow in the path of Jesus, and not our own hearts.
2. I will do what makes me happy, and please myself.
Some of the unhappiest people I know are people who lived their lives to make themselves happy. Doing exactly what they wanted when they wanted. God says in Isaiah 65:2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, who walk in a
way that was not good, after their own thoughts; We need to make God happy and to please the LORD. Moses said to the people: In that I command you this day to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways,
and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that you may
live and multiply: and the LORD your God shall bless you in the land where you
go to possess it.
3. No one is going to tell me what is right for me, I'll decide myself what is right for me.
Isaiah 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not from
me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin
to sin: If we would look back over the course of our lives it was when we became rebellious towards our parents, toward society, towards our teachers, towards our responsibilities that the troubles and bad attitudes crept into our lives. Is it possible to be 40, 50, 60 years old, and yet still be rebelling against the things that would bring us peace? Yes, some people never learn. I see mothers of young children who say, I will do what's right for me, no one tells me what's right for me, except me. When I hear them say it, I know the young child they are raising is going to adopt the same philosophy. When that young mother has a teenage child that has adopted her same rebellious mindset, she will begin to see how foolish it really is to think this way.
4. When I party, and get drunk and so forth, I'm not hurting anyone but myself.
I am responsible for no one but myself, if you don't like my actions, too bad.
Try telling this to a family that has someone that is abusing drugs or alcohol, or in trouble with the justice system. We deceive ourselves when we think that our actions have no consequence on the people around us. Remember Cain, who killed his brother Abel. He said to God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" When we have the attitude that our actions are ours alone and we do not think we impact others we are living in a fantasy world, causing destruction for everyone around us.
Jesus boiled down life in two commandments:
Matthew 22: 37-40
37Jesus replied:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind.’b 38This is the first
and greatest commandment. 39And the second is
like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’c 40All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The truth is, we put God and others before ourselves. This would solve the problems of marriages, nations, kingdoms. Love God, and love others. It isn't that hard to understand, we just have to lay down our selfishness. Think about how much better this world would be if we would just obey Jesus.
