Simplify Your Life

J. “What do I do, Pastor, if there’s not a job readily available?” You turn what used to be an eight-hour a day, 40-hours a week job into the “job” of looking for a job. Many people don’t have a job because they’re not investing their hearts in looking for one. They’re waiting for a windfall job to show up instead of taking a job flipping hamburgers. Put your hand to the plow, because God promotes faithfulness.

K. Now why are you laboring? You labor at that which is good that you may have to give to him who needs. This is another way of saying, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel.” Human need, whether it’s salvation, healing, provision, eternal, or temporal, is only met on a sustained basis by the Word of God. If you’re going to meet human need, labor at that which is good, generate an income, and the end result should be you’re enabling the Word to go into somebody’s life.

L. Once you’ve labored and generated an income, the next thing you do is give God the first 10 percent of that income—not because He needs your money, but because it is a sign of your submission to His Lordship. In tithing, you acknowledge that your source isn’t your job or your bank account, but God. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” When you tithe, God will bless you with enough money to meet all your family’s needs.

M. Once you’ve tithed and taken care of your own (your bills are paid), God says there will be something left over. That’s called seed. He doesn’t say whether it will be a dollar or a thousand, just that there will be something left. You have a decision to make with this money: will you consume it on your own desires or give it into the kingdom? I think the Lord will give you direction in each instance as to how to handle this seed. If you do choose to put it back into God’s kingdom, you put it back into God’s system of increase. Managing our lives in this way will make them more simple, rewarding, and successful.

N. Another thing that complicates your life is sickness or disease. If you haven’t been a good steward of your body, you open yourself to a lot of complications either now or when you’re older. You could face physical regimens, therapy, treatments, thousands of supplements and pills and medication, doctor appointments, surgeries, etc. Talk about complicating your life!

O. God tells us right out of the box that it’s His will that we not be sick. Healing is part of the redemptive work of our Lord. It is in the atonement. By the stripes of Jesus, you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). If you’ll get this in your heart, when sickness knocks on your door, your simple solution is to believe and receive your healing because Jesus said it will be unto you according to your faith.