If You’re Good

Maybe you are feeling the pressure today. You can’t see the finger pointing at you, but you feel you are being singled out and the pressure is intense. Should you say yes or no?

The King of Babylon wanted the best. Back then, if you were ‘good’, his men would be on your tracks. Nebuchadnezzar knew exactly what he wanted. He had a certain profile in mind and his officials muscled their way into the lives of those he had targeted.

If you meet the following criteria, the King of Babylon wants you:

• Young and full of energy – a keener
• Good-looking – eye candy
• Physically fit, healthy
• Intelligent – with brains to burn
• Academic Achiever
• Generally, a with-it person who’s got smarts and loads of potential.

Daniel and three of his friends were at the other end of the pointing finger of Babylon; they were in the crosshairs of the mighty. Babylon wanted to turn them into the young people of Babylon. They were worth an all-out recruitment effort. Significant investments would be made to get them onside and sucked into the ways and priorities of Babylon. The machinery of Babylon went into high gear to reshape these young people from every angle – academically, philosophically, culturally, socially and spiritually. Strategically they targeted them at their very core – ‘who’ they were and they left no stone unturned – even changing their names.

Is there a mastermind behind our present culture and today’s norms? Is it God’s design or does it come from somewhere else that we think this way: “I want my child to get a very good education. I want her to soar to the top academically. I want her to walk away with awards and the Miss Congeniality crown. I want her to land a fantastic job and I hope she will move up through the ranks quickly. I hope and pray that she will become financially secure quickly; live in a nice home and enjoy life and make a real name for herself.”

Maybe you sense you are caught in the crosshairs of success. The finger is pointing at you. But if you give Opportunity ‘A’ the nod, it may mean you will be:

• super busy;
• miss quite a few prayer meetings and Bible Studies because of workload, demands and pressures;
• miss some Sunday mornings and evenings due to travel and weekend sessions;
• rack up a considerable debt getting the qualifications you require for such a career;
• unable to participate in gospel outreach work locally or with peers in other places because you are just too busy or just can not afford it now; and you will be
• unable to develop your spiritual gift because you are too committed and over-extended secularly.

If you’re good the ‘world’ will want you. They will tempt you with Opportunity ‘A’. The pointing finger will NOT be sinister looking in anyway. It will NOT say: “This is the world hounding you for your talents.” If you’re good, Satan will want to minimize your usefulness for the Lord and he’ll find a way to point the finger at you but he too will be smooth about it. He WON’T say: “I’m the bad devil you should run from.” No, the opportunities will come at you disguised in extremely attractive packages and perfectly reasonable approaches. In fact, they will look so legit and make such perfect sense in our society you would be branded a fool for not seizing Opportunity ‘A’.

Daniel was exactly the package the King wanted. If anyone had what the King wanted, Daniel did. What did Daniel do? Daniel determined in his heart that he would not be contaminated by the lifestyle, priorities and culture of Babylon. (Daniel 1:8) At any cost – even it meant facing the lions; God would always have the first call on his life. God and the things of God would be his single priority – everything else he did would flow from that and be subservient to that purpose in life.

Are you willing to go against the secular and cultural flow and say ‘NO!’ to the pointing fingers and instead allow yourself to be led by the nail-pierced Hand?

I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God,

to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties]

as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God,

which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world (this age),

[fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs],

but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind

[by its new ideals and its new attitude],

so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

(Romans 12:1-2 Amplified)

Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.

Warmly in Christ

Peter Ramsay

peter@heaven4sure.com