Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Chase (05/01/25)
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TITLE: In Pursuit Of What? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
05/05/25 -
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Truly, what provides one person with a feeling of happiness, contentment, and success is not the same as it is with other people, or with God.
Divine viewpoint says that one can, “… gain the whole world (Mark 8: 36 NASB2020),” that is to receive and experience everything that this world has to offer, yet still be, “… wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3: 17 NASB2020),” in the eyes of Whom we are going to give a self-account of (1) one day.
For many, chasing after the next level of success will be like a beast of burden that follows the carrot dangling in front of a horse-drawn carriage, never realizing that it will always be beyond their reach.
If a man never marries, lives with his mother as an adult, does not receive a secular education, is not a political or social activist, and is reputed as spending time drinking and eating with sinners, he or she would not be considered much of a success in many circles.
Yet, all of these things were recorded as facts, in the divinely successful life of Jesus.
King Solomon, who had the opportunity and experience of having had it all, and having done it all, found that the uphill pursuit, and even the achieving, of secular success, to be wearisome vanity (meaningless), if God and the things of God are left out of the picture (2).
The general (applying to everyone) plan, and the individual plan (applying to individual believers) differs from one dispensation (period of history) to the next, in the unfolding of the Master Plan that God has decreed for the human race.
The Church Age general plan for believers is outlined in Matt. 28: 19, 20, and the individual plan is outlined in 1Cor.12.
Motivating God’s children to pursue their own, personal, earthly, plans for prosperity, coupled with making the devil’s world (3) a better place to live, INDEPENDENTLY of God, has been a long-standing objective of the devil.
The woman (later named Eve) was deceived into believing that what she was about to do (eating of the forbidden fruit) would improve things for she and Adam (4).
Making the best of one’s opportunities to better one’s lot in life, and contributing to the making of this world a better place to live, makes sense and appeals to Man.
Providing for a safe environment, social justice, equality, honesty in business; providing such things as shelter, food, clothing, medical attention, and education for oneself, dependents, and others, are all worthy endeavors, but not one of these things can produce one second of eternal life.
Hell-bound unbelievers do such things every day.
God has no objection to earthly prosperity, p-r-o-v-i-d-i-n-g that one does not leave God, and or the things of God, out of the picture in its obtaining or retaining.
God, and or the things of God, are left out of the picture whenever sins of commission or omission enter the picture.
Sins of commission involve anything that we think, say, or do that violates the Word of God.
Sins of omission involve anything that we fail to do that the Word of God requires of us.
For different reasons, some of us are motivated to be more aggressive in our pursuit of earthly prosperity than others, but everyone has an agenda.
The agenda of some is just to do enough to maintain and retain status quo.
Others have an ongoing insatiable desire to obtain or to experience more and more of what they already have.
Granted, as long as we are in these mortal bodies, there are earthly concerns and issues that must be addressed.
That being said, what determines the things that we prioritize and or chase after, is largely based on our orientation.
The focus of attention of an earthly-oriented individual is on what can be gained or lost, concerning the things that this world has to offer.
The focus of attention of a spiritually-oriented individual is not only his or her own walk with God, but the spiritual well-being of others.
Our objectives, and the intensity with which we chase after them, is a reflection of the level of our devotion; keeping in mind that one cannot serve two masters (5), and that everything has a price (6).
(1) Rom. 14: 12 (2) Book of Ecclesiastes (3) Luke 4: 6 (4) Gen 3: 6 (5) Matt. 6: 24 (6) Mark 8: 36/2Tim. 3: 12
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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