Self-Help or Faith and Patience?

In case you haven’t noticed we are living in a troublesome era. We seem to be faced with more questions than answers. Our values are all tangled up between traditional and progressive. The world has changed exponentially over the last few decades with technical breakthroughs unimagined just 30 years ago. This kind of rapid change leads to confusion and disorder. We are left with the difficult task of untangling our lives, over and over again. There is a host of self-help gurus just a computer away with all the answers to a more contented life and we are more than eager to turn our troubles over to them. As a young man just starting life’s journey, I was very ambitious and eager to succeed. I was a good candidate for the self-help philosophy. With a college degree in my pocket and a desire to be successful, I entered the world of self-help. I read self-help articles, purchased self-help books, and in general, had more failures than victories. I kept getting in my own way! Self implies that you can do all things for yourself, all you need is the right formula and a positive attitude. Well, good luck, I found a better way.

When a person commits to Jesus Christ as the Savior, that person is transformed by a supernatural act of God. “Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to understand and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect.” (Rom. 12:2) With the Holy Spirit as your life partner you begin to trust God through faith. So, what is faith? “It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.” (Heb. 11:1) Most of us worry about everything. The fact that God has all things under control is a giant leap of faith, but if we can accept this truth, we can be content in all things.”Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs, and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.  If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6-7) When we pursue a life filled with self-centered desires the outcomes are seldom fulfilling, but, if we make Jesus the center of our life, we reap rewards in this life and the life to come.“If you live to satisfy your sinful self, the harvest you will get from that will be eternal death. But if you live to please the Spirit, your harvest from the Spirit will be eternal life.” (Ga. 6:8)

God has provided promises for every situation we may encounter. “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 6:8) We need only to apply patience to our faith. “Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. “(Ja. 1:3-4) Many people will try to make the world a better place without God, it doesn’t work, they are lost travelers in a lost world going nowhere. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: (Psalm 103:2)