If you take time to examine life, you will see that at first glance, things are not always how they appear. For example, let’s use success. It would appear that someone is successful because they have a lot of money and material things. The rich man Christ described in Luke 12 proved this to be false.
From Christ’s perspective, success is not about having a lot of money and material things. The aforementioned is Satan’s definition of success. Many people such as the rich and famous have plenty of these things and yet, for the most part, they are lonely, miserable people; hence why they drown their sorrows in sex, drugs, and alcohol.
Having a lot of money and still being miserable is not true success. Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with having material things or money, provided we put them in their proper perspective. The point I am making is that money cannot buy you the attributes of Christ; which are love, joy, peace, and happiness. This is what true success is made of.
Money can help aid these things; but our love, joy, peace, and happiness is NOT contingent upon having lots of possessions, accomplishments, career, etc. The mere fact that Christ refers to riches as deceitful lets us know that many of us put the wrong value on riches. In Mark the 4th chapter, Christ places riches on the same level as sin.
What Christ is conveying to us is that material things without God do NOT constitute success. King Solomon proved this fact. King Solomon, you might say, was like a scientist of life. His approach to life was like a scientist working in a lab. He placed life under a microscope, so we can view it from both perspectives, God’s and Satan’s (Ecc 7).
With this in mind, let’s look at King Solomon’s life at the beginning of his reign. During this period in his life, Solomon aligned his heart, soul, and mind with God. Through this union, he had love, joy, peace, and happiness; the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). As a result, Solomon was able to enjoy his blessings (1Kin Chapters 3-10). Because Solomon placed God first in his life, he was blessed beyond measure with wisdom, wealth, power, prestige, and whatever else he desired (Matt 6:33; Ps 37:4; Josh 1:8).
Sadly, like Eve, Solomon failed to protect his thought life (mind) from Satan. In other words, he accepted Satan’s character and as a result, his possessions, accomplishments, and physical companionship did not give him the fulfillment of the heart.
When our heart is void of Christ’s attributes (love, joy, peace, and happiness) we cannot have true success. We not only have Solomon’s knowledge to prove this fact, we have the lives of many “influential people” to confirm all of the above.
Although people such as the rich and famous have many companions, fame, possessions, accomplishments, and all forms of riches, many of them are lonely, miserable people (Ps 37:16). They have the spirit of Satan guiding them, which is why they suffer from emotional distress. Inward, their lives are tormented and miserable. These people have no real peace and happiness because they do not have Christ (Pro 16:8; 15:16).
We can only obtain the attribute of Christ by possessing His Spirit. Since most of the rich and famous have Satan’s Character, their life is cursed. They fail to realize that peace and happiness can only come from within us and not from a relationship or what we possess (Lk 12:15; Ec 5:10).
The mere fact that physical things cannot bring about the attributes of Christ such as love, joy, peace, and happiness is evidence that material things and companionships can only aid in what spiritual attributes already exist within us. A successful life is a life that is filled with the attributes of Christ.
If you take time to examine life, you will see that at first glance, things are not always how they appear. Looking at our surroundings, you will think that this world is striving and getting stronger and improving every day. At first glance we see buildings being built, people rushing to and from work, traveling, etc.
However, the opposite is happening. In reality, this world is decaying daily. Every day, this earth is transitioning more and more into hell. Things are not always the way they appear. This is why we must take time and analyze what we are truly believing and seeing. Let’s use something physical like these luxury apartment buildings that are currently being built in Chicago.
Developers are constantly building these types of buildings even though most people cannot afford them. After these apartment buildings are built, all of these buildings remain 60% empty. Looking at the construction that is going on, you would think that this world is booming and there are plenty of jobs for everyone.
This cannot be further from the truth. Actually, there are very few jobs available to anyone. Needless to say, only certain people get hired for these jobs. And even fewer people get to live in these luxury high-rise apartment buildings. Most people can barely make ends meet. Nonetheless, these luxury high-rise apartment buildings are constantly being built with poor people’s money.
At first glance, you would think that these companies are rich and have all sorts of money to do whatever they want. In reality, they just know how to milk the system (a.k.a. the government). What we do not see is that these companies are going to the government and getting, write-offs, tax credits, etc. to build their luxury high-rise apartment buildings that most of the public people cannot afford to live in.
Also, what we do not see is the government making up these deficits (write-off, tax credit, etc.) by overtaxing the middle class and poor people to help fund these developers and their projects. They use government money because they know that most people do not stop to think that this business of building luxury-high-rise apartment buildings is a scam to milk the government out of taxpayers funds.
Projects like these keep the majority of the public middle class and poor and unable to live within our means because the government keeps taking our means. Companies doing projects like these are the real reasons why we have so many poor and homeless people.
The government comes to us common folk to cover the deficit that their family and friends created. Again, the point I am trying to make is that – you would never think that this world is dying just by looking at our surroundings.
The point of this conversation is to be vigilant in protecting your mind and focus on gaining Christ’s attributes. Always be cognizant of the fact that we live in a world of deception so things are not always how they appear.
If this podcast has been a blessing to you, please check out my other website starengu.com.
I’m confident that my side hustle of helping others to invest in themselves via my online courses can be of help to you. My courses are geared to teaching people how to create their own website, and promote their endeavor through digital marketing, and so much more.
You never know who you may inspire. See you in the next podcast!
Be sure to subscribe to Hustle in Faith’s podcast on iTunes or on Google Play Music.
Leave a Reply