The heart needs to be centered in Christ. If one persists in trusting in the riches of this life rather than Christ, he will find himself with nothing on the day of judgement. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).
Then there are those who trust only in self. An illustration of this type of person was seen in the motion picture “Shenandoah” starring Jimmy Stewart. The character Mr. Stewart played said the following prayer over a meal.
“Dear Lord, we cleared the ground, we planted the seeds, we worked the ground, we gathered the crops in, but we thank you just the same.” Many today have this outlook on life.
Much of this comes from the humanistic teaching done in our schools today. Our young people are faced with instructors who do not believe in the Bible. Generations are being reared to believe man has all the answers. This false idea makes it difficult for religious teaching to be accepted. Thousands, even millions search for peace and happiness by their own means, not realizing that only in Christ is true peace and happiness to be found.
Jeremiah wrote these words, “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). If man trusts only in his steps how will he be guided, there will be no moral or ethical direction for him to follow. As in the days of the Judges “…every man will do what is right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25). Friends we must learn to trust in God and His promises making Him the center of our lives.
Some trust in men rather than God and His word. They fail to follow the true teachings of God by ignoring the need to look into the word for themselves. False teachers and deceivers have been around since the Garden of Eden, and time and time again God warns of their dangerous existence. John set forth a warning when he wrote, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (I John 4:1). John was instructing the people to make sure the teacher was true. Guy N. Woods a great student of God’s word wrote, “The readers of the Epistle were thus admonished to “prove” the spirits, run and assay on them as a metallurgist does his metals, and determine whether they were of God…. It is significant that it was John’s readers who were to make the test and not some ecclesiastical dignity or official head. … These we are to prove (try, test) by the infallible standard we possess—the New Testament. It matters not how pious or religious a teacher may affect to be he is worthy of believing only when his teaching is in complete harmony with the word of God….”
Man needs to get back into the habit of studying God’s Word. Many believe they are studying when in fact they are only reading the verses.
They then look to someone to give them the understanding, and accept what they are told, without checking the scripture for themselves. Society wants everything to be quick and easy. True study of the Bible is not this way. It takes time to really study God’s word.