“Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice” (Psalm 50:4).
The sacrifice that his saints make is the “sacrifice of righteousness”, which is to “trust in the Lord” (Psalm 4:5). Today, Christians tend to trust God only for those things that they cannot supply themselves, such as salvation, healing or other miracles; that is not trust, but fatalistic resignation tempered with wishful thinking.
In this quasi-Christian scheme of things God becomes an Aladdin’s lamp who, after a bit of prayerful polishing, will do the bidding of everyone who will accept His Son and join the religious club. A believer has no other obligations than to accept Christ, after which he has only to come with his basket to receive everything offered in this world with the added bonus of everything in the next world as well.
This gross distortion of the truth contained in the scriptures has gained widespread ecclesiastical respectability and thus, is commonplace in the practice of Christian Churches generally; it is this weak humanism, combined with weak Christianity that has led to institutional unbelief.
God only works in relationship and relationship between moral beings is based on trust and trust relies on character, which is the only guarantee of behaviour. But if we trust God for only those things that we cannot get ourselves, how are we any different to the world at large; “For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Matthew 5:46-47). This is the principle that applies.
What we are to trust God with is our will; out of our relationship with God the daily minutiae of life is something that we need to involve Him in; it is called absolute surrender, or saying with your life rather, not just your tongue, that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:11).
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