Keep It Simple, Saints!

After Elijah was run out of town in fear of Jezebel, he poured out a lament to the Lord, painting himself as “the only real believer left”. The Lord kindly came to him in a gentle whisper and decided He wouldn’t place any more on him, then delegated his task to others. But in doing so, He wanted Elijah to know there were still thousands “in the game.”

I King 19:18-"Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."

The implication of the Lord is clear-many of God’s best and most devoted weren’t known or in the “limelight”. God had 7000 in Israel.

America’s celebrity-adoring culture tempts us to admire and even pursue a “superstar” type of Christian lifestyle and ministry. Being the “talk of the town”, an exceptional person with fame and all the trappings of celebrity is esteemed and admired. Historically however, Christian leaders who live like this have complicated lives and in most cases, abandon their callings due to moral or ethical failure, aborting and discrediting most of what they accomplished.

Our goal then should be to pursue God and fulfill our calling SIMPLY and with little fanfare. We should keep our lives uncluttered and focused on the basics.

-Every day we should worship, read & study the Word of God.

-Every day we should make our marriages and family a priority.

-Every paycheck we should put God first with our tithes and offerings.

-Every week we should make time to fulfill our callings.

One of satan’s key temptations is to get us to succumb to delusions of grandeur and shortcuts to promotion. (2 Corinthians 11:3) If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Before we will ever see greatness in our lives, God promises to test us and we must be found faithful in handling three key areas (Luke 16: 10-12):

1) Little
2) Money
3) Another’s

By doing little things well,we will do big things well. If we don’t trust the Lord with our finances, how we can we use spiritual treasure? And if we don’t respect that which is another’s, including other’s ministries, how we can have our own? If we keep our life focused and simple, we build every day on a sure foundation and sooner or later we find we have accomplished some amazing things for the Kingdom.

Keep It Simple Saints!


Blessings,
Marc Lawson