In teaching us how to pray Jesus Christ asked us to ask the Father: “Give us each day our daily bread,”(Luke 11:3), because God desires that we come to Him every day. And this is for our own benefit, not God’s, even though when we do this He credits it to us as being obedient to Him.
God created us as a soul, extended His Spirit to us and equipped us with a physical body. The soul is who we are. Our spirit extends to us from the Spirit of God. And our body houses all our organs and parts and provides a place for our soul and the Spirit of God to interact. It is the spirit that God has put into each and every one of us that gives us life. Our spirit powers our minds (our intellect) and our body.
By interacting with God in real time, we operate as God designs us to operate. But when we leave God out of our lives, we falter and get into so much misery. The world has taught us to live for pleasures. We pursue them every which way we can and could do anything to acquire them.
And when the need to bask in pleasures becomes our singular interest, we go after everything that brings pleasure with reckless abandon and do all we can to keep everybody else from getting them.
Jesus Christ, on the contrary, tells us that working to feed the body does not bring us any real gains. Other than food, clothing and shelter, all else is vanity and tend to mislead instead of lead us into the Will of God.
And for that reason, He is asking us to pick up our cross daily and follow Him so we may attain holy living and be saved on the last day. Here is the passage from the bible:
“Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:23-26).
So if it is the pursuit of personal gains, pleasures and comfort that lead us into wickedness; sharing with others, giving up something so that someone else may have something, and allowing ourselves to experience a little discomfort in order that someone else may experience comfort, are some of the things we need to practice to live like the people of God. Jesus Christ told us to be salt and light to the world. In essence, He is telling us to reflect the qualities of Christ in our actions, our speeches and general life activities. He wants us to be doers, not just talkers. Apostle Paul warns:
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
“They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.” (2 Timothy 3:6-9).
“You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:10-17).
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