Vanity

MATTHEW 6 : 1 - 18 NKJV
“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

The Model Prayer

“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Fasting to Be Seen Only by God

16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
How much of what we do is to be seen to be doing it by others? What will they think of me if I do not do this? What will they think of me if I do do this? Well we only have an audience of 1 and that 1 is God and all of the remainder count for nothing. In fact, if we are living in the fear of what others will think or say about us, then we will struggle to please God. As we can see from the above words of Jesus Christ, we should give in secret and do nothing for the praise of man. That is to the Glory of God. Do you realize that Jesus is instructing His disciples on what true Christianity is? In verse 15 Jesus says that "if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." That means, if you do not forgive others, then your sin will be held against you. It does not matter if you have asked God to forgive your sin, because He will not listen to your request if you hold unforgiveness towards others. Again, one may think that they have salvation, but God alone sees the hearts of all people.

The world teaches us vanity. It is everywhere. How real is it all? How much of what politicians in general say or do is to get the vote of the people? What is advertising teaching us? Is it promoting covetousness? How much of what the world tells us that we need, do we really need? What does God tell us that we need and are we listening to Him or to the world?

MATTHEW 6 : 24 - 34 NKJV

You Cannot Serve God and Riches

24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Look at verse 25 for example. How much time do we spend focused on food and drink or the clothing that we wear? In verse 24 again we can see that Jesus is saying that we cannot be christian if we are serving money, because we can only have one true master. All of these worldly alternatives are a distraction to keep believers from totally surrendering to live for God.

MATTHEW 16 : 24 - 26 NKJV
 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 
In Matthew 16 : 24 - 26 Jesus is clearly saying that unless you lose your worldly life for His sake then you will lose your own soul. You can not be both worldly and christian. Many will pretend to have it all right with God, but God can see those who are truly His. Many are attracted to the false doctrine that they are saved once they have prayed a sinners prayer. It suits them to believe it, so that they can continue to do the things that they want to do and still believe that they will spend eternity with God.

JAMES 4 : 1 - 10 NKJV
Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

Humility Cures Worldliness

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
It begins with us. If we truly desire to be real christians, then we need God to teach us how. If we ask Him to show us where we are worldly, then He will show us. We may not want to give it up, but if we do not give it up then we will certainly lose our lives. If we then ask God to empower us to surrender our worldliness to Him then He will. That is why we need saving and that is what we need to be saved from.

REVELATION 3 : 14 - 23 NKJV

The Lukewarm Church

14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’”

From verse 22 we can see that Jesus is speaking to the churches. Many in the churches today just believe that they are saved and are going to spend eternity with God. That is the lie that they have been taught. The lukewarm church is the church that says that they can have the world and God, and Jesus makes it abundantly clear that this is not true. We can only really see our worldliness when we ask God to show it to us. We can only be free of it by the power of The Holy Spirit.

ROMANS 8 : 13 - 14 NKJV
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Again, the apostle Paul is speaking to the church, which again makes it abundantly clear that everyone who believes that God is real and attends a church is not necessarily walking in salvation. Are you losing the life that you have lived for yourself, that you may have life in-Christ-Jesus? This is an ongoing journey of transformation. So what has The Lord changed in you this week? If you can not answer that, then you have a problem. Again I say, you can ask God to show you the way in all things, and that is what He requires of us all. Running your own life is vanity, it is saying to God, "I do not need or want you to tell me what to do, I want to decide for myself". This is pride, which is the fullness of vanity.

1 JOHN 2 : 27 NKJV
27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

The Holy Spirit is waiting to teach all who will submit to Him, that those who do may be enabled to obey God. If one does not want to learn from Him, then that one does not want to obey God and that one remains a sinner who will be punished along with all of the other sinners.

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