A Life Worth Living (4 page)

Faithful tithing keeps you safe and positions you for greater blessings from God.

There is a lady who attends my church whom the Lord blessed with more than a million dollars within one day. She had been tithing faithfully for nearly a year before she received the million dollars. She tithed on whatever income she received. She was tithing regularly. Then, when the Lord blessed her, the first thing she did was she tithed on the million dollars. Do you know why it wasn’t too hard for her? She had been faithfully tithing before the increased blessing. So forget about waiting for the ship to come in before you tithe. Let’s focus now on the little boats, the sampans, and tithe on these.

Faithful tithing keeps you safe and positions you for greater blessings from God. And it prepares you for the thousand-fold blessing that God wants to give you.

chapter
3

A Christ-Centred Life

chapter 3

A Christ-Centred Life

Law Is You Working, Grace Is God Working

A
life worth living is a life lived under the grace of God. What a wonderful place to be! But people always ask me, “Pastor Prince, how do I know if I am living under grace or under law?” You are under law whenever you find yourself saying, “Am I pleasing to God? Am I doing all right? Because I did something wrong, I wonder if God is displeased with me?”Whenever you are conscious of what you are to God, you are living under law. Law is what you are to be before God. Grace is what God is to you. Whenever you are conscious of what God is to you, you are under grace.

Law says, “I am working.” Grace says, “
God
is working.” Law is when I work. Grace is when God works. Right now, even as I am conveying this message to you, there’s an inward rest in me. I’m conveying a message, but I’m not working because it’s Christ in me who is working. I cease my work and I look to Him. I’m under grace, not under law. Under law, I have to work while God rests. Under grace, God works and I rest. All good things and blessings are accomplished when
God
works. When
I
work, the result is bad, very bad. When God works, the result can be nothing but perfect!

God is working in you right now as you read this book.

Choose Grace Over Law

It’s time for us to realise that we’re no longer under law. Law is the consciousness of self and how short we fall of God’s glory. Law focuses on what we are supposed to be before God and what we are not supposed to be before God.

How conscious are you of your faults and failures? God wants you to stop focusing on them. Focus on Him instead. Even as you are now seated reading this book, do you know that God is working in your life? Do you know right now that God is working in your body, in your mind and in your heart? Do you really know that? God is working in you right now as you read this book.

You may ask, “How can God be working when I am sitting still?” God works all the more in us when we sit still and let God be God. And when God works, His results are perfect.

So when you believe that God is working, it’s not a matter of sitting down and doing nothing. You must believe that God is working. You must believe that right now, God is working in your life. You must believe that right now, God is working on your health. Right now, God is working in your family. That’s God’s grace and the only response required of us is that we believe. The most pleasing thing you can do before God is to believe Him, to trust Him.

So what is grace? Grace is to forget about self and to be Christ-occupied. When He becomes the central figure in your life, your life will be filled with purpose and meaning. Jesus said in John 10:10:

¹⁰
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly
.

If You Want To See What God Is Like, Look At Jesus

How do you become more Christ-centred? By discovering more of who He is. My Bible tells me in Colossians 1:15 that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. My friend, if you want to see what God is like, look at Jesus. Throughout the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, He had compassion on the needy, He cleansed the lepers, He opened blind eyes and restored deaf ears, He raised the dead and He loved little children.

The one who created everything walked on this earth with us. He showed us what God is like because He is the image of the invisible God. John 1:3 says, “
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”

Everything that you see in creation was created by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Colossians 1:16 that all things “
visible and invisible”
— whether thrones, dominions, principalities or powers — were made by Him. He created the stars, the sun and the moon. Whether you can see it or you can’t see it, He made it.

It’s beautiful sometimes to see Jesus in “lowly grace”. God is not showy and pretentious like man. We try to get a bit of a name for ourselves. We tend to crave attention. God may have created a particular type of fish to demonstrate one of man’s weaknesses. It’s known as the pufferfish. When threatened, it inflates itself by swallowing water. It puffs itself up to make it look bigger than it really is.

But Jesus is not like that. When He chose the place in which He was to be born, He didn’t choose a palace, but a smelly cave. The King of all kings was to be born in a lowly manger. He walked among fishermen, not royalty. He chose fishermen and tax collectors as His disciples. This is what we call “lowly grace”. It’s a beautiful picture.

But don’t forget that the hands that held and blessed children also created the stars, the moon and the millions of suns beyond our sun. And when those same hands were nailed to the cross, it is no wonder there were three hours of darkness in the middle of that day.

Your Purpose In Life — Do Whatever You Do For God’s Glory

Do you want purpose in your life? The Bible tells us in Colossians 1:16 that Jesus is the creator of all things for a reason — “
All things were created through Him and for Him
”. We find here that there
is
a purpose to life. You can have purpose in your marriage. When you get married, don’t marry for one another, marry and love one another for Him. Build purpose into your children. Nurture your children for Him and for His glory. Have purpose in your career. Develop your career for Him.

If you are working for any other reason, your life won’t have purpose. You might say, “I’m working for my family to put food on the table.” My friend, that’s just an existence, not a purpose. Do everything for the Lord Jesus and you will experience life more abundantly. Your life will be worth living. If you are serving your church or the community in some way — even if you are picking up litter — do it all for His glory. When your life takes on purpose beyond yourself, life takes on meaning beyond mere existence. The smallest task and the lowest paid job are no longer boring.

In everything you do, do it for His glory. When I preach, I don’t preach for man’s favour, I preach for His glory. In everything, even when you eat and drink, do it for His glory because all things were made through Him and for Him. When people say and write bad things about me, I have a clear conscience because I know that whatever I do, I do for His glory, not for man. My friend, that is a life worth living.

When He Is Glorified, Everybody Is Edified

Do everything to glorify God and you will find that you no longer have to look over your shoulder to see what people are saying about you. Man’s opinions will no longer be important. When He is glorified, everybody is edified. The sick are healed, the blind see and the dead are raised. Whenever He is glorified, everything in the universe is at peace. If I live for my glory and for my fame, then I am empty. At the end of it all, like Solomon, I will hate life.

When you live for His glory, there will be deep fulfilment in everything you do.

You will lead a shallow life if all you seek is people’s approval. In contrast, God’s affirmation is deep and fulfilling. When you live life for His glory, no one may know what you do, no one may see what you do and no one may compliment you for what you do. But when you live for His glory, there will be deep fulfilment in everything you do. When you sleep at night, your sleep will be peaceful and refreshing.

When you do everything to glorify Him, people
will
begin to notice. We want our lives to be blessed so that when people look at us, they’ll say that the God we serve must truly be God. Why do you want to be blessed this year? Why do you want a thousand times more this year? For self-gratification? No, for Him and for His glory. When God blesses us, we have opportunity to tell our friends about God. Your career, your health, your marriage and your business are blessed not for your enjoyment only, but also for a higher reason — for His glory.

Christ Holds Everything Together

Colossians 1:17 says, “
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”
The Greek word for “consist” means “held together”. Scientists today tell us that every matter is made of atoms. Now, scientists will also tell us that atoms are made up of electrons, protons and neutrons. But did you know that while scientists can tell us that everything in our world can be broken down into a tiny unit called an atom, they cannot tell us what holds the atom together? They just don’t know what force holds the atom together! My Bible tells me in Colossians 1:17 that by Christ, all things are held together. That’s why when Christ comes into your life, you are held together. You become integrated into His life.

Just attending a marriage seminar will not hold your marriage together.

But those who are without Christ and those who are “carnal” Christians have their lives torn in many directions. While their mind is going in one direction, their mouth is going in another direction, their heart is going in a third direction and their feet are going in a completely different direction altogether. Their lives are like a long internal civil war. They are not held together, they are not integrated and that’s why they have no integrity. For them, life is not fulfilling, life is not worth living. When Christ comes into your life, He integrates you and He brings peace to the warring factions of your life. After all, He is called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

A Marriage Is Only Blessed With Christ In The Centre

A blessed marriage is one in which Christ is in the centre. Everything in that marriage revolves around Christ. Only then will all things be held together in that marriage. You cannot build a marriage on human love. The Bible says in Ephesians 5:25, “
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” The
type of “love” here is
agape
love, which means the love of Christ. So those of us who are married are to love our wives or husbands with the love of Jesus Himself.

Just attending a marriage seminar will not hold your marriage together. That is a humanistic solution. The wisdom of the world tells you that husbands must do this, this and this, and wives must do that, that and that, then everything will be okay. Well-qualified psychologists will tell you that you are to do this and this in the bedroom, and read this book and that magazine, then your marriage will be successful. Nonsense! I tell you that a marriage is held together by Christ. Christ must be in the midst of it. He will hold it together.

You cannot have a successful relationship without the third party of Jesus Christ.

In all my years as a pastor, I have seen this truth so many times: People who rely on their own human love will eventually fail in their relationships. Human love can turn into hate without the love of Christ.

People who rely on human love use all the right words in the love language: “Honey pie, sweetie pie, mango pie…” They say, “I can’t live life without you.” Then, fast forward just two years and you will hear one saying to the other, “I don’t know why I fell in love with you! I can’t even stand being with you any more!” Why? Because they relied only on human love. How tragic!

If You Are Not Happy With Your Husband, Don’t Go To Him, Go To Jesus

You cannot have a successful relationship without the third party of Jesus Christ. My friend, you may feel that you married the wrong person, that it’s all too late and that the mistakes of the past cannot be rectified. If you feel that you are not happy with your husband, don’t go to him, go to Jesus. When you’re not happy with your wife, don’t go to her, go to Jesus.

Too often, we go straight to the person we have a problem with to try to resolve things. And we end up angrier with that person. Instead, go to Jesus first. Spend time in His presence. Talk to Him about your marriage. Talk to Him about what is going on in your relationship. Expect Him to talk to you and believe what He says to you when He talks to you.