It is a difficult thing to go through life by only relying on your own abilities. Too often we deceive ourselves into thinking that we can make it on our own. However, the very best thing we can do is learn to lean on Jesus and allow Him to measure-out our successes and accomplishments.
Observations:
- Achievement sourced in envy is meaningless
- Achievement at the expense of peace is meaningless
- Achievement that is ignorant of death will be meaningless
Conclusions:
- Pace – Remember that you live under God’s timing…
– then enjoy every part of every day - Steps – Remember to make God’s justice the compass for your heart…
– then be happy and joyful in the direction of Godly desires - Burden – Remember both your limitations and God’s ability…
– then live free from anxiety and worry - Direction – Remember that your spirit will return to God who gave it…
– then embrace life with purpose
Application: How? – By walking with Jesus every day
- Jesus sets my pace
- Jesus protects my steps
- Jesus lightens the load
- Jesus routes my direction
James 4:1-4
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
Ecclesiastes 5:12
“The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep.”
2 Timothy 4:14-15
“Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.”
Isaiah 55:11
“My word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Galatians 6:9
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
James 4:13-15
“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
Jeremiah 17:9-10
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
Ezekiel 36:26
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Romans 8:5-8
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
1 Peter 1:24-25a
“For, ‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
1 Corinthians 1:8-9
“He will also keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”
Isaiah 55:6
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.”
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”