It is very easy to look at those around you who have more than you materially, and to envy them. It is our sinful nature. Deuteronomy 8 (specifically verses 6-20) shows how dangerous this can be. I need to make sure that I never am desiring more materialistically, as well as never taking credit for anything that I gain, accomplish or achieve, but rather give God all the credit and the glory for everything.
When I desire to have and gain more materialistically, I am in essence saying to God, "What you have given me is not enough", and furthermore I am stating, "I need more than just you in my life". It bothers me to even write such things because I know that I have been guilty of desiring more, but the reality of the matter is that when I do so, I am saying the things above, and that is downright sad and disturbing. Especially after all that He has done, and is constantly doing, in my life. The reality of the matter is that God is all that I need in life. He has promised to always provide all of my needs for me, just like he does the "birds of the air and the flowers of the fields" (Matthew 6:25-34). At the same time, "Every good and perfect gift comes from God above, Who never changes". (James 1:17) Therefore, God not only provides everything that I need, but even the additional blessings that come in life are from Him. Therefore, I must always ensure that I am completely content with all that God has chosen to bless me with. I must always resist the temptation to focus on the little I don't have, but rather focus, and be thankful for, all that I do have. After all, "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6).
Since all good things are blessings from the Lord, it is important to never take credit personally for the good things that are gained and/or accomplished in our lives. It is very easy to see the career that you have, the work that you've done, the awards that you've received, the accomplishments that you've had, and then think, "I did those things. I accomplished that. I set my mind on those goals and I went out and achieved them. I'm the man!" The truth is that God is the man, never myself. While we can work hard to achieve things and accomplish goals, it is God who is sovereign and controls the results of our efforts. We must never forget His sovereignty and we must humble ourselves before Him, recognizing that the best place to be is at His mercy, allowing Him to have complete control of us and our lives. While we are called to always work our hardest and do our best in everything we ever do (Colossians 3:23), it is not us who determines our fate, rather it is God. As we work our hardest to achieve goals and dreams that we set out to accomplish, it is important to realize that God may choose to bless our efforts, frustrate them, or He may choose to use our efforts to take us down an entirely different path that we never expected. The important thing to realize is that God is sovereign, He is in control, and that is a very good thing because His ways are always best.
Something that I question however is how exactly this applies for non-Christians. I look at people like Donald Trump and ask myself whether or not God has blessed his efforts to become a successful business man, gaining incredible worldly wealth in the process. Although I am not entirely sure whether the view that I have is completely correct, my inclination toward this issue would be to say the following: Non-Christians who pursue goals and dreams, if they go about it in a way which is wise and put forth great effort, they very well may be sucessful. If they are successful, I don't think this is necessarily God choosing to bless them, although it might be the case. I think however what this probably is, is God allowing them to be successful. He is not blessing it, but He is also not getting in the way. They worked hard, went about things in a wise way, and things worked out for them. At the same time, I don't think this always happens in the lives of Christians. I think sometimes God may choose to bless the efforts of our goals and dreams due to the fact that they are within God's will, while other times He may choose to frustrate them because they are not within His will. The key here is that God has a purpose for all Christians here on earth. He has things that He has pre-ordained for us to accomplish and so I believe that when we pursue goals and dreams that are not aligned with those purposes, He takes our efforts and through His sovereign control guides the results of our efforts toward the purposes that He has for us. As well, He uses those circumstances to teach us and make us more like Him. One may find some of this frustrating because we like the idea of being able to set goals and pursue dreams and then think that with enough dedication and effort we can accomplish anything that we set our minds to. The reality of the matter; however, is that these facts are actually things which should bring us great peace. God's ways are always best, and the fact that He will take the various events in our lives, including the results of our efforts to pursue goals and dreams, and then through His sovereignty steer those results toward that which leads to His purposes being accomplished in our lives, shows His great love for us. As mentioned, His ways are always best, and so the fact that He works things out in our lives so that His purposes may be accomplished, displays His love. And if we ever question that love, remember, He came to earth in human form to live and then die a brutal death all on our behalf so that we may have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him. He has more than proven the fact that He has our best interests at heart.
It is important for us to always be content with what God chooses for us to have, while at the same time never taking credit for the blessings that He does choose to bestow upon us. We need to make sure that we are always working our hardest at all things to be our best and accomplish our best for God. We should work with effort as if the results depend completely on us, but at the same time recognize God is sovereign, He has purposes for our lives, He has our best interests at heart and thus He will bring about the results from our efforts that He sees fit. And it is all a demonstration of His great love for us.
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