God’s Not Interested In Popularity

2-46pm

I got thinking about this last night.  I Googled “God’s not interested in popularity” and this is what came up…

God’s not interested in popularity. There are no eternal benefits to winning a popularity contest on earth. It does not matter how many friends you have on social media or in real life. Your popularity doesn’t make you popular to God. Ha, God’s not going to sit me down at a heavenly desk one day and say, “Okay, Helga, let’s just look at how many people viewed your blog!”

I believe God looks to see how we respond to popularity. Winning a popularity contest may enamour you towards your many fans, but what does it make you do towards God?

It’s the same with money. If ever there was a difficult subject to get your spiritual head around, it’s cash. I struggle with it very, very often.

Sometimes, I have this mental image in my mind’s eye. Imagine if we knew and believed for 100% certainty that by giving to the poor we were lending to God….I picture people arriving at traffic lights where the poor are begging and instead of lowering their eyes and looking away (I do it all the time), they grab the money they have set aside for the purpose, and they call out the window and wave  for the person to see.. Only there’s not just one driver doing this….everyone at the traffic light is clambering to get the beggar’s attention, so they can have the honour of ‘lending to God.’ The beggar doesn’t know where to begin – he runs from person to person, gathering up their gifts. 🙂 Quite a shift in thinking!

Proverbs 19:17

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and He will reward them for what they have done.

I know, I know, it’s hard to grasp and just so difficult to try and action. You’ve only just received this mental image. It’s been in my brain for months and I’m no further down the road. I struggle with it regularly. I have all the answers. I give to this organisation and I help out with those that come to my door. It’s difficult at the traffic lights at the best of times…and they may be drinking my money away or sniffing glue. And it perpetuates the problem of begging on the streets, which is something to avoid. All of the above are true. And I do agree we need to be wise. Crime in SA is a problem. We don’t want to perpetuate begging. We don’t want to promote drug and alcohol abuse. I generally don’t give to beggars at traffic lights, but I make the effort to be kind to the poor.

The bottom line is that I have to keep examining my heart with whatever I’m dealing with. THAT is what God IS interested in. He’s interested in your heart.

1 Samuel 16:7

“The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

“Thank you Jesus for not looking at the things people look at ! You see my heart. You see my motives. You see my dreams, my needs, my desires, my excuses. You take it all into account. You love me just as I am and You want what’s best for me. You challenge me to be better – to follow hard after You – to be obedient to Your Word and to underscore everything I do with love. I want to be popular with just one Person. You’re all that counts. AMEN!”

God bless you today!

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂

Gratitude – Celebration! Today is my beautiful, clever, kind-hearted, hard-working, deep thinking, God-loving, Bible reading, daughter’s 27th birthday. Happy Birthday Stacey. Thank you for enriching our lives in a bazillion different ways….