God desires that we live the best life possible. We should not be burdened with complications. Our lives should be peaceful and simple; not weighted down with the cares of this world. We know that everything will not always come up full of roses, but we should feel a sense of peace as we live a life that is based on God’s Word. He has empowered us to have this type of lifestyle and has provided rest through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The bible tells us to bring our burdens to the Master, and in exchange he will give us rest.
To live simply means to live without being burdened down with the emotional heaviness of sin and strife. Philippians 4:6(NLT) tells us, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” When most of us hear the words of the Lord, telling us that we shouldn’t ever worry about anything, we think that it is a great way to exist, but we cannot imagine being that way. We can’t imagine living in a mental and emotional state where we do not allow anything to cause us to have a bad or sad mood.
In John 15:18(NLT), Jesus Christ told the disciples, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.” The Lord was not unaware of the struggles that exist in life. He was God in the flesh when he walked upon this earth, and he was intimately familiar with all of the complexities we deal with as humans. In John 15:18, he was preparing the disciples for what laid ahead. He was telling them what to expect. They would face harsh realities, and Jesus Christ didn’t put no cut on it. He was forthcoming with the truth.
We cannot be set free by believing a lie. We can only walk in liberty by knowing and dealing with the truth. Jesus Christ didn’t sugarcoat the fact that life is challenging at times, but through him we have a way of dealing with those challenges. This is what God is telling us in Philippians 4:6. God doesn’t want us to worry about problems because doing so keeps us from walking in freedom. We can’t concentrate on our relationship with Him, and on being our best for Him if our minds and hearts are boggled down with stress. The better plan is to give all our cares over to our Heavenly Father. That’s why He tells us to tell Him what we need, and then thank Him for all He has done and all that He is going to do on our behalf.
Heavenly Father is telling us to live simply by choice. We must choose to cast all our cares on Him, and then have faith that He is willing and is more than able to handle anything we bring to Him.
Living simply doesn’t mean that we live a life where we do not care about anything, or we don’t care what happens to us and others. God wants us to care deeply. He wants us to show genuine concern and compassion, because being supportive, caring, and concerned is His nature. As Christians, our responsibility is to take on the nature of God by learning to love and care His way.
God has empowered us to achieve this. 2Corinthians 4:7 (KJV) proclaims “7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” The term ‘earthen vessels’ in this verse is referring to our bodies. The treasure in our earthen vessels is the Holy Spirit. He is our friend, our confidante, our teacher, and our source of power. Simply said, everything that we are empowered to do is because of God. We cannot take credit for anything, because we can’t do anything without Him. He gives us the ability to do all things through the Spirit of Christ that indwells us.
One of the issues that causes our lives to be weighted down and complicated is a lack of discipline when it comes to our thoughts. It is very tempting to let our minds go wild and to think all kinds of thoughts, whether they are good or bad, but we can’t afford to do this. In 2Corinthians 10:5 (NLT), God tells us the way we ought to handle our thought-life. It says, “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”
The truth is that every thought, every word, every attitude, conversation, and deed…all of what we speak, think, and do will be tallied up and charged to our account; we will stand before God on judgement day and be held accountable for these things.
Philippians 4:8(NLT) tells us, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” We must saturate our minds with this kind of goodness. We should think on the goodness of Jesus Christ, because this paves the way for goodness to pour into our lives. God wants us to have an abundant life—a fulfilling life, and an honorable life. And we achieve it by taking authority over our thoughts and putting on the mind of Christ.
This is what really allows us to love unconditionally. Everyone is not going to have the same level of spiritual maturity in Christ, and everyone is not going to see things as we see them. If we have God’s love anchored in our hearts, and His Word in our minds, we will not put conditions on the way that we love others. We will have patience, realizing the enormous amount of patience that God has with us.
We have a treasure that we carry with us every day, everywhere we go. This treasure is the Spirit of God that lives and operates inside us. Because of him, we can please God and live a good life. So be committed to keep your mind saturated with God’s Word by thinking on His goodness. When you do, you will find that He has empowered you to live simply, care deeply, and love unconditionally. This is God’s Will for us, and it is the best way for us to walk in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“Live Simply, Care Deeply, Love Unconditionally” written by J Mack for 4TheChristianMan.com© 2017. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.