Mark 8:33
He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
There are very many people these days who hang on to the so called “prosperity gospel” where the emphasis lies on health and wealth.
For them, it is all about having a GOOD FEELING, and for many of their pastors it is all about gathering more and more MONEY. While IT SHOULD BE ALL ABOUT JESUS.
One of their pastors, Joel Osteen, even wrote a book “Your best life now”, urging his followers to be even more centered on the things concerning their short stay on earth. A ‘feel good gospel’.
His followers love this book, but don’t realize that the only way they can have their best life now, is when their next is less good than the life they live now. That is not found in heaven, so where is it? In hell !
Now the question for us remains: Are we setting our mind on God’s interests, or on man’s?
Realize that when you set your mind on God’s interests, it may conflict with your own. As Jesus also said in Matthew 16:24-27 (KJV)
²⁴If any man will come after me, LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, and TAKE UP HIS CROSS, and FOLLOW ME. ²⁵For whosoever will SAVE his life shall LOSE it: and whosoever will LOSE his life for my sake shall FIND it. ²⁶For what is a man PROFITED, if he shall GAIN the whole WORLD, and LOSE his own SOUL? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷For the Son of man SHALL COME in the GLORY of his FATHER with his ANGEL’S; and then he shall REWARD every man according to his works.
This is calling for a decision. A choice you have to make in the depths of your heart. Are you going to decide now?
What will your decision be? Are you going to set your mind on God’s interests, or on your own?
Maybe you will say now: “I already made that decision, I know that I am born again!” When I once asked how they could be so sure. The answers were:
• That they were BORN in a Christian family.
• That they had the TRADITION of going to church.
• That they RAISED THEIR HAND during a evangelistic campaign.
• That they WENT FORWARD at an invitation.
• That they PRAYED the “sinners prayer” together with their pastor.
• Etc. Etc.
But when I asked or they repented, the answers were “I think so”, or a doubtfully yes, but many of them DIDN’T EVEN KNOW what that was. They had a FALSE FEELING OF SAFETY, based on something THEY did; while they, though with a GOOD FEELING, in fact were still on their way to hell!
My dear brother, sister, or friend,
I don’t want you to have such a FALSE FEELING of safety,
I want you to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus!
Do you know that none of the things I listed above can be found in the Bible? It is NOT the way Jesus or the apostles did it. You should NOT be trusting on something YOU did.
But ONLY on what JESUS did for you!
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