Keys to Successful Living: 12 Ways to Discover God's Best for Your Life (7 page)

T
HERE
IS
A
RIGHT
WAY
to approach God, and a wrong way. This is something else about which we have no option. We have to come before this holy God with the right attitude. The understanding of that right attitude is the subject of this chapter.

How is your memorization of the keys coming?

1. Let us fear
   
2. Let us be diligent
   
3. Let us hold fast our confession
   
4. Let us draw near to the throne of grace
   
5. Let us press on to maturity
   
6. Let us draw near to the Most Holy Place
   
7. Let us hold fast our confession without wavering
   
8. Let us consider one another
   
9. Let us run with endurance the race
   

Like the ninth key, the tenth key is also found in Hebrews 12. It comes near the end of that chapter.

The King James Version translates
Let us show
gratitude
as
Let us have
grace
. We see in this the connection between
grace
and
thanks
. The King James translation is a literal translation of the words; likewise, the phrase
to have grace
is commonly used in Greek to express the giving of thanks. This concept brings out the connection between grace and thanks—one that is found in various modern languages. The French, for
instance, say,
Grâce á Dieu
, “Thanks to God.” In both Italian and Spanish, the word for
thank you
is taken from the word
grace
. In Italian it is
grazie
and in Spanish it is
gracias.

So you see, in these and other languages there is a connection between grace and thanks. May I tell you something that I believe strongly? You cannot have the grace of God in your life unless you practice giving thanks. Grace and thanks go together. There is nothing more ungracious than an unthankful person, whereas a thankful person will always experience the grace of God.

Two Requirements

We need to see that God requires two responses from us as His people. First, He requires that we appreciate what He does for us. Second, He requires that we
express
our appreciation—and that is crucial for us to understand.

There are some people who really are grateful to God, but they never take time to tell God how grateful they are. Please let me ask you a question. How would you feel as a parent if your children never thanked you in spite of all that you did for them? You probably would not like it at all. What if they never said thank you or showed their gratitude, but just accepted everything you did for them as if it were theirs by right? How would you feel if they just took all you did for granted? Unfortunately, many of God’s children treat God like that, and it is not pleasing in His sight. We are required
to appreciate what God does for us. Additionally, we are required to express our appreciation.

One of my favorite Scriptures is Proverbs 3:6: “In all your ways acknowledge Him [God], and He shall direct your paths” (
NKJV
). I have learned by experience that if I pause at every stage in life to acknowledge God, I can be confident that He will continue to direct my path.

You may ask: “How can I acknowledge God?” The simplest and the best way is simply by thanking Him—thanking Him for all He has done; thanking Him for His faithfulness. When you acknowledge Him in this way, you will get the assurance immediately that He is going to go on being faithful. Just as He has helped and guided in the past, He will guide in the future. But the key to this assurance is acknowledging Him by our thanksgiving.

God’s Unshaken Kingdom

The writer of Hebrews gives us the background of this exhortation to thankfulness. Looking at the previous three verses of Hebrews 12, we read this rather solemn warning:

See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking [to us. And then a parallel is taken from the Old Testament, when God spoke to the people of Israel through Moses:] For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we [believers in the New Testament] escape who turn away from Him
who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” And this expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Hebrews 12:25–27

This is the background of the exhortation to show gratitude. We are in a world that is crumbling—it is falling apart. All around us we see distress, uncertainty, perplexity, confusion, hatred, division, war, fear—not merely in one nation, but in all nations of the earth. To a greater or lesser degree, these conditions continue and, indeed, grow worse. God says, “There’s coming a time when I’m going to shake once more not only the earth but also the heavens.” This “once more” indicates this is going to be the final shaking. In this final shaking, everything that can be shaken will be removed. But in light of this, the writer of Hebrews says: “Since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude” (Hebrews 12:28).

That, my friend, is the appropriate response to the particular privileges and benefits we have in God. We are not dependent on a shakable kingdom. We have an eternal Kingdom, an unshakable Kingdom, the Kingdom of God Himself. That Kingdom is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

In the midst of all that is going on around us—all the shaking, all the threatening, all the alarms, all the fears and all the inadequate and insufficient remedies that only temporarily stop the gap—in the midst of all this, we have an unshakable Kingdom. We have peace, security, purpose. There is only one appropriate response to that realization: It is thankfulness. “Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude.” Let us express our thanks to God!

An Acceptable Service

Not only is thankfulness or gratitude the appropriate response to what God has done and is doing for us—not only is it something we owe God and need to pay—but thankfulness or gratitude or the expression of our appreciation does something in our spirits that nothing else can do. Here is how I express it: Thankfulness releases our spirits for acceptable worship and service. That is why the writer of Hebrews says, “Let us show gratitude, that we may offer to God an acceptable service, with reverence and awe.”

Without gratitude, our service to God will not be acceptable. It is that “attitude of gratitude” that makes our service acceptable and releases our spirits. An unthankful person is bound up in himself. He is self-centered. He really cannot know true liberation. But thankfulness releases our spirits.

Look at what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:18–19: “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you
in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.” That is a clear commandment. If we fail to give thanks, we are being disobedient. If we do not give thanks, we are out of the will of God.

Failing to give thanks quenches the Spirit. The only release for the Spirit, to serve God acceptably, is through thanksgiving.

A Consuming Fire

As part of this teaching on showing gratitude, we want to take special note of the closing warning in Hebrews 12:29: “For our God is a consuming fire.” Here is what the writer is saying: “We have to approach this holy, awe-inspiring God with the right attitude—with a humble, thankful heart.”

As we consider the world in these last days, we must acknowledge that a “shaking” is coming. With it is the disintegration of character, morality and standards. Paul says:

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

2 Timothy 3:1–5
NIV
1984

What a terrible list of moral defects and character degeneration that is going to mark the close of this age! If you go over that list, I think you will find that most of these character defects are conspicuous in our contemporary culture. Right in the middle of that list, it says, “disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love.” Please notice that association. The ungrateful are right next door to the unholy. You cannot be holy and be ungrateful.

Since our God is a consuming fire, and He requires that we serve Him with holiness (which is appropriate), then we have to serve Him with gratitude. We must come to Him with thankfulness.

Look at those words once more: “Let us show gratitude, that we may serve Him acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.”

N
OT
ONLY
MUST
we have the right attitude toward God, but also we must have the right attitude toward the world. This world is not our home. How, then, do we live in it successfully?

First, here are the ten keys that bring us to this point:

1. Let us fear
   
2. Let us be diligent
   
3. Let us hold fast our confession
   
4. Let us draw near to the throne of grace
   
5. Let us press on to maturity
   
6. Let us draw near to the Most Holy Place
   
7. Let us hold fast our confession without wavering
   
8. Let us consider one another
   
9. Let us run with endurance the race
   
10. Let us show gratitude
    

Our next key, number eleven out of twelve, is found in Hebrews 13.

This eleventh key deals with our attitude and our relationship to this present world. The core verse for this step is telling us that our home is not in this world. We do not have any enduring place here. The world rejected Jesus—it drove Him out of the city and crucified Him outside the gate.

Scripture always emphasizes the fact that the crucifixion took place outside the city wall. Jesus was absolutely rejected. He was put out of society. The world did not want Him. You and I both know that the way the world treated Jesus, sooner or later, in one way or another, is going to be the way the world will treat you and me as believers. We must be willing to go out to Him to the place of crucifixion—the place of rejection and shame, bearing His reproach.

The Reward of Reproach

Elsewhere in Hebrews, we read the testimony that the reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt (see Hebrews 11:26). His reproach becomes our glory. Then the writer gives a beautiful reason: “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). Other people might think this earthly existence is permanent; we know it is not.

I like this translation, which talks about “
the
city we are seeking.” There is one specific, particular city that is the destination and the home of all true believers. That is where we really belong.

Two chapters earlier, in Hebrews 11, the writer provides a kind of honor roll of many of the great saints of the Old Testament, emphasizing their faith. He says about them:

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a
distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:13–16

I am gripped by the words that are written there—that these forerunners in the faith, who are our examples in so many ways, confessed that they were strangers and exiles in this earth. They did not really belong; the earth was not their home. And then it says that they were seeking a country of their own. Those words have a poignant meaning for me.

It so happens that in my life I have had to deal with quite a number of people who were classified “stateless”—people who did not have a country, who did not own a passport. I thank God that by His grace I was able to help a number of them. I also know something of the agony of not belonging anywhere. My family and I experienced that firsthand. I would suppose there are multitudes of refugees in our world today and in the previous generation who went through that agony of not belonging, having no permanent place of their own.

These people in Hebrews 11 were seeking a place of their own, but not in this world. It says that if they had been
interested and wanted, they could have gone back to the place they came from. Abraham, for instance, could have returned to Ur of the Chaldees. But he had his mind set forward, not backward. “They desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”

Then comes this beautiful sentence: “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.” When we identify ourselves with God—His city and His preparation for us—then He is proud to be our God. It is beautiful to know that He has prepared a city—for them and for us.

Commitment to Jesus requires identification with His cross. We have to go out to Him to the place where He was crucified. This commitment to Him rules out two pursuits in our lives: pleasing self and pleasing the world.

Rule Out Pleasing Yourself

Let’s look for a moment at what the New Testament says against pleasing self. Here are words from the apostle Paul:

Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

Philippians 3:17–19

In this passage, it is clear to me that Paul is speaking about people who profess to be Christians—yet he warns his fellow believers against them. He says, “They claim to be followers of Christ, but they are the enemies of His cross. They are indulging self. Their minds are set on the things of this world. The principle of the cross—of death to self and the things of the flesh—has never been applied in their lives.”

Regarding them, Paul says, “Be careful. Don’t follow their example, because their end is destruction.” It pains me to say it, but I think we have today people in the Church who profess allegiance to Christ—yet reject His cross.

Rule Out Pleasing the World

Our identification with the cross of Jesus also rules out pleasing this world. James writes these stern words in his epistle to professing believers: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4
NIV
1984).

This is very plain language—too plain for some people, I believe. Why does James call such people “adulterous”? Because, you see, the spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ required of us qualifies us to become part of His Bride. The Bride is required to have a single-hearted, total commitment and devotion to Jesus. If that commitment and devotion is infiltrated and adulterated by the love of this world, then we have become
spiritual adulterers. We are not faithful to the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. To be friendly with the world is to become spiritually adulterous.

We see this same thought in the words of Jesus:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

John 15:18–19
NIV
1984

When the world “loves us as its own,” that is a pretty dangerous sign that we do not belong to Jesus. Once again, this is plain language, and we need to give heed to it.

Only in the Cross

What then should be our attitude in the light of these plain facts and statements of Scripture? It is expressed in the words of Paul: “But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).

Those words make a deep impression on me. Let me never boast. Let me never place confidence in anything, ultimately, but the cross of the Lord. Let me not boast in my education, my religion, my denomination—none of these things. My only safe boast is in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, where Jesus won a total, permanent, irreversible victory over all the
forces of evil. Through that cross, the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

The cross is an absolute mark of separation between the people of God and the people of the world. When we accept the principle of the cross in our lives, we no longer belong to this world.

Jesus gives us this beautiful promise of victory: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33
NIV
1984).

That is good news, is it not? The world is not our friend—it is our enemy. We are going to have trouble, but Jesus has overcome the world! Through Jesus, we, too, can overcome the world—if we are willing to go out to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. So, let us go out to Him.