I am brother Michel Lankford with Whole Testament Discipleship Success. Thank you for joining me.
So, somebody online asked a great question. I answered it to them, and then I thought it would make a pretty decent video, because it occurs to me that maybe other people who are searching for purpose and meaning are also asking this question
We All Need love: We all need to be loved. We All need to grow in love, and we all need to give genuine Love to other people in order to be happy healthy and fulfilled. From a truthful point of view, belief in the Almighty Creator is CRITICAL; because He IS Love, (1 John 4:7-8). Since the Almighty is the source from which all love truly originates, then our ability to receive and to give away genuine love will be greatly hampered if we refuse a relationship with the source of all Love. Furthermore, being in right relationship and in right standing with the Almighty Creator, REQUIRES Faith and Belief, because righteousness is attributed to us by faith, (Genesis 15:6; Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11). Refusing to believe and walk by faith, IS SIN, (Romans 14:23b). Refusing to believe is a mark of foolishness, (Psalm 14:1; Psalm 53:1). Don’t forget, you can also ask for help in believing, (Matthew 7:7-8; Mark 9:24). If we choose not to turn away from that foolishness of refusing to believe, then, it will lead to eventual condemnation and eternal separation from the love which the Heavenly Father desires to give to every person, (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9; cf..Revelation 21:7-8). So, whether or not we choose to believe is an absolutely CRITICAL decision with eternal consequences, for better or worse, depending on the choice that we make to believe or not.
Life Works Better
The second reason why I believe that faith in God is so critical is that to put it simply, life works better. If you take any complicated machine or complicated system a design. It has an intended purpose to fulfill and intended design regarding how the complex machine or system was intended to function. It doesn’t matter what the machine or system is. In every case it has a designer. It has a purpose and it has a way in which it is supposed to function.
Take the idea of a hairdryer for example. It is designed to dry her hair more quickly. In order for it to work as intended you have to plug it in and wave it over your hair. Now, if you decide to save time by using the hairdryer while you are in the shower, serious problems will happen. Why? Because electricity and water don’t work well together and you could kill yourself trying to save time by misusing what would otherwise be a beneficial product. The hairdryer was not designed or intended to be used while you take a shower at the same time you are taking a shower.
Your life and body are a far more complicated machines than a hairdryer. YHWH Almighty God is in fact that Designer of our life. When He designed our life, He had a desire, a plan and a purpose for our life. He has designed ways for us to use our life in a way that will be a greater blessing and benefit to ourselves and to others. If we use the life that God gave us in a way that truly correlates with the Designer’s Plans and Purposes, then our life can produce better results. It can be a blessing to us and to others; a lot more than if we go against the Designer’s Plans and Purposes.
To put it simply, living life the way that the Designer of life intended just works better. A simple way to look at this is to take a scan of some of the most popular and widely used self-help books and life improvement books out there. If you look at them carefully the self-help books that achieve the highest results advise you to do the same things that Scripture has been telling believers to do for thousands of years. It’s true. The self-help books that produce the most effective results all tell you to do things that the Bible already teaches, and has been teaching for thousands of years.
For just one example, practicing gratitude is all the rage now and popular psychology. It seems like everybody’s pushing the be grateful idea. “Science has discovered” that being grateful creates happier and healthier human beings. Well, DUHH! The Bible has been teaching that same concept for thousands of years. It’s not new, it’s just true.
I have tried it both ways. I am 50 years old. I lived about 20 years of my life without any relationship with God to speak of. I lived 30 years of my life in active relationship with God, and 27 years of that life and ministry. In my experience life just works better when you actively follow the Almighty Designer’s Plans, Purposes, and instructions.
I am brother Michel Lankford for Whole Testament Discipleship Success. Thank you for joining me. I bid you Shalom and encourage you to learn and follow the Almighty Designer’s Instructions.