STOP STRIVING

Author: Dr. John A. Tetsola
March 20, 2019

“He decides who will rise and who will fall.”

Ps 75:7 NLT

If you don’t find your significance and self-worth in your relationship with God, you’ll be tempted to spend your life trying to promote yourself.  And that will make you insecure—and dangerous.  Why?  Because when others get promoted ahead of you, you’ll become resentful; you may even try to tear them down.  In God’s kingdom, you don’t achieve success on your own, you receive it from God.  “God is the judge:  he putters down one, and setteth up another” (KJV).  While David’s brothers were striving to be Israel’s next king and “get the nod” from the prophet Samuel, David just kept tending his sheep and doing the job God gave him.  Let others compete and compare!  Just stay faithful in what God has given you to do—and when the time is right He’ll come and get you!  

Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt 11:30).  Note the word “easy.”  When you try to promote yourself, you have to sweat, strain, and struggle, but when you trust God and do things His way, it comes “easy.”  That doesn’t mean you won’t have to work hard or sacrifice in order to succeed.  It just means you won’t have to strive to get it or keep it.  Why?  Because when God sets “before you an open door” (Rev 3:8 NIV), He’s the only one who can shut it.  And He won’t do that unless, like King Saul, you’re rebellious, resentful, or refuse to repent.  Knowing God is in control takes the strain out of serving Him.  When you think about it—it’s the only way to live.

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