The 3 Essentials: All You Need for Success in Life (6 page)

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Authors: Casey Treat

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Faith Is for All Things
I
wish I could promise that when you walk by faith in God, your life becomes easy and you will no longer have to face challenging or dangerous circumstances. I’d love for this to be the truth, but it’s not. Even though we are Christians, we still live in a world that is under a curse, and as long as we are walking on this planet, we are going to have to deal with that curse. We are going to face weather crises like hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes. We will need to fight drought, starvation, and disease epidemics, and we will witness sin abounding in the world around us.
But here’s the promise we as Christians
do
have. In John 16:33, Jesus tells us, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation, trials, distress, and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]” (AMP). Because of these words from Christ, what I can promise is when we walk by faith and put our trust in God, no matter what situation we might face, we will have the ability to overcome it.
For those who are facing economic pressures, there is hope in God. For those who are walking through emotional scars and pain from the past, or who are dealing with sickness and disease, there is healing in God. For those who are facing failure in business or marriage or ministry, there is restoration to be found in God. For those dealing with addiction to drugs, alcohol, or pornography, there is deliverance in the name of Jesus.
Whatever
the trial or tribulation, if we will choose to operate in faith, to put our trust in God, we will be able to experience victory in our lives.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones” (Proverbs 3:5-8). This sounds so right and easy, but in actuality, it is very difficult to actually walk out. We like to “lean on our own understanding,” in other words, have our own opinion, perspective, or way of thinking. When we face a situation, whether it is good or bad, we have thoughts and beliefs about it, and we act accordingly.
Whatever
the trial or tribulation, if we will choose to operate in faith, to put our trust in God, we will be able to experience victory in our lives.
We’re funny creatures, too, because we want to believe we are right at all cost. If it is pointed out that what we believe is incorrect, even if the explanation makes perfect sense, we don’t want to admit we are wrong. Somehow, that would translate into something is wrong with
us
. We have trouble accepting that we can be wrong and still be good people. If we live our lives caught in this trap, and face every circumstance and every decision by leaning on our own understanding, we will miss so much of what God has for us. “In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”
It takes more faith to admit we don’t have the answer than to make something up. It requires more faith to say “I have no idea why this is happening, but I’m still going to trust in God anyway” than it does to fabricate some kind of pseudo-spiritual answer. When I graduated Bible College, I had all my eschatology sorted out. I knew when the Rapture was coming and had figured out the millennium and all the various aspects of the last days. After thirty years of studying the Bible since then, I have come to the understanding that I know nothing. The more I learn, the more I know how little I actually know! Now, I don’t even try to figure it all out. I just trust in God.
When Wendy and I were married in the late 1970s, we read a few books on relationships, took a few classes, and we thought we had this whole marriage thing figured out. We were confident we had everything we needed to make this thing work. While we have faced every challenge together and are stronger and more in love than ever, I still think I know less about how relationships work today than ever before. As our family grew and our kids matured, we kept facing new challenges. Throughout it all, I learned, and I am
still
learning. It just never gets to the place where you know everything and you have it all “figured out.” Every day, we simply put our trust in God. We don’t lean on our own understanding, and in all our ways, we acknowledge Him, and He directs our paths.
We would be in trouble if we walked through our lives only by our own understanding. Every day we use inventions, gadgets, cars, and computers, and we have no idea how they work. Most of us have barely any knowledge of the technology we use throughout our day—but we don’t let that stop us. We still enjoy these things in our workplaces, in our schools, and in our homes. Can you imagine how difficult our day-to-day experiences would be if we refused to use any product or invention that we did not have complete understanding of? We wouldn’t even be able to get out of the door every morning! We wouldn’t be able to use the microwave, the hair dryer, the car, or the cell phone. And our food—just like I said in the last chapter when I was talking about my vitamins—we have no understanding how all our food is made and packaged or what the eighty-seven ingredients are in our energy drinks—but we consume them anyway.
So why is it when it comes to the things of God that we believe we have to figure everything out before we trust? If we are willing to
not
lean on our own understanding when it pertains to the products of the world, why do we insist we have to grasp every spiritual concept before we will embrace it and trust in it? I cannot tell you how many times someone has told me they were not going to tithe because they could not figure out how God was going to help them prosper because they dropped a check in the offering bucket. Yet they trust the mystery meat in the hamburger at their favorite fast-food joint.
Here’s a better idea: Let’s choose to trust in God at least as much as we trust in the world. Let’s put our faith in His ways, even when we don’t fully comprehend them. He’s the God of the Universe who loves us, who gave His Son to die for us, who is ready to move Heaven and Earth for us, and is patiently waiting to spend all of eternity with us—I think we can trust Him. Let’s not be wise in our own eyes, let’s lean not on our own understanding, but in all our ways, let’s acknowledge Him and then sit back and see what exciting things He can do in our lives.
But What If . . .
I was lying in bed one night, wide awake. I’m not going to lie about it; the reason I couldn’t sleep was because I was worrying. I was thinking about our new building and all that needed to be done in order to complete it, about our finances, about how to finish the school building, and all sorts of scenarios these problems could cause. What if this happened? Or what if that happened? In the middle of it all, I felt the Holy Spirit bring a scripture to my mind:
Do not worry.
My first thought was,
What? Who’s worrying?
Then I realized,
Dang! I have been lying here worrying! How long have I been doing that?
Isn’t it funny how you can be doing something and not even catch yourself until the Holy Spirit has to give you a little poke? I guess I thought I was just thinking about the issues, but the truth is that I was fully engaged in worrying. I took a break from my stress and began to think on the rest of the scripture the Holy Spirit was bringing to me:
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? . . . Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:25, 31-34)
As I meditated on these words of Jesus, I was reminded that worrying is a choice. The fact that Jesus told us three times in a matter of a few verses, “Do not worry,” means it is possible for us not to worry. We can make a decision to do something different. That night, I made a shift in my thinking (aka worrying) and refocused my thoughts to God’s Word:
Thank you, Father. You meet all my needs, and you take care of every part of this ministry. My steps are ordered by the Lord, and I am not going to worry about these things anymore. I trust in You and know You are making everything to work out perfectly.
And what do you know? The next thing I remember is my alarm going off in the morning.
I use myself as an example but think we all can relate. There are so many issues and potential problems every single day we can be concerned about, and it is very easy to find ourselves worrying instead of focusing our hearts to trust in God. Sometimes we will even buy into the lie that we cannot help it—“If I don’t worry about this, who will?” But the truth is we
can
help it, and we can make a choice to meditate on the scriptures and the promises of God instead of our problems, our fears, and our doubts. When we choose to do this, then we will build our confidence in God, and our trust in Him will grow.
On the other hand, when we choose to spend our time worrying, we are building our confidence in the enemy. Worry focuses on what Satan is attempting to do in our lives and in the world, and when we are imagining all the bad things that can go wrong with our marriages, our kids, our money, our health, our work, then we are giving him power in our lives. We are building our confidence in Satan instead of in God, and very soon our worry will prove to us that Satan is more powerful in our lives than the Word of God.
Worry is faith in the devil. Meditating on the promises of God’s Word is trust in God. Whatever is occupying our minds and our brain space—fears and doubts, or promises and faith—is determining who we are trusting: God or the enemy. Do not worry! Jesus said it, so we
can
do it. Do not worry, and instead, trust in God with all your heart.
You Have More Inside of You Than You Think
When my kids played sports, there were various seasons when I would have the opportunity to help coach their teams. I would tell the players that whatever intensity the other team brought, whether on defense or offense, they would have to match that level of intensity to position themselves to win the game. No matter what the situations were, they would need to face the other team with the same energy that team was bringing them. It wasn’t long before I realized this strategy to win in sports is the same one we need to win in life. As Christians, if we want to see success in every circumstance of life, we are going to have to get up every day and match the intensity of the world with the same measure of faith, trust, and confidence in God.
According to 1 John 4:4, “Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world.” This means what is inside us is not only able to match, but is also able to overcome, what is in the world. The good in us is greater than the bad in the world. The passion, the power, and the strength inside of us are greater than the negative demonic activity in the world. The health in us is stronger than the disease in the world. The prosperity in us overpowers the poverty in the world. The God in us is so much more
everything
than the devil that is in the world. Yes, in this world we might face some tribulation, but when we grab hold of this promise, we can realize we really
can
be of good cheer because Jesus lives inside us and can overcome anything in the world through us!
The good in us is greater than the bad in the world. The passion, the power, and the strength inside of us are greater than the negative demonic activity in the world.
However, here’s what happens to many Christians: They walk out into the world, and they don’t match its intensity with the power of God within them. They listen to worldly songs, watch negative news, believe the bad reports, and very soon they find themselves twenty points down in the game of life with a backache and a headache, and they say they can’t take it anymore. How did their faith become overwhelmed by the enemy? Because they started trusting in the world and didn’t match the intensity of the world. Pretty soon, they become depressed, discouraged, and overwhelmed, and they think that he that is in the world is greater than He that is in them. Let’s not let this happen to us—ever. Let’s have this mind-set: The world can’t depress me. The world can’t push me down because when it tries, I push back!
When Jesus showed up, the demons would start to shake and quiver and ask, “Have you come to torment us?” The devil was stressed out because of the presence of Jesus, and He lives inside each one of us. Don’t get stressed out by the world; the world gets stressed out by us. We don’t get scared and intimidated by what the world throws at us; we intimidate it. We never need to worry or have fear because the life, the love, the energy, and the power of the Almighty God resides in us and is far greater than anything the world can muster up.

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