Inspiritnews.com

Stop Begging For Dimes

AUTHOR: Joshua Goodling

The story is told of the young son of a very wealthy family, who didn't care much for the "rules" his father had made, and he decided life would be much better out on his own. He packed his few meager belongings and left the house, he was going to do just fine he thought. Well, the fun lasted a few weeks, but then he found himself poor, tired, hungry, and penniless. He resorted to begging on the street corner downtown. To everyone who would pass by, he asked; "Pardon me, but could you spare a dime?"

So, this was the life had dreamed of? All the "pleasures" and "fun" were gone. His entire happiness was now dependent upon that one "dime" that he hoped the next person would give to him. He was now alone, discouraged, and with no hope in life. Then one day, as he was standing there begging, he saw a man approaching and began to ask; "Pardon me...", but before he could get the entire sentence out of his mouth, he recognized the face of his father, and with tears in his eyes said; "Dad...is that you?"

His father wrapped his arms around him and said; "Son, you don't need to be doing this. All that I have is yours, if you'll just come home."

You know, the same is true for many people in the Christian life. They accept Christ as their Saviour, but then they decide they don't like the "commandments" God has for them to live by. They think they can get by without obeying "all of the rules", they will do fine on their own. But then, they wonder why their prayers don't get answered, why they have no peace or lasting joy.

Our Heavenly Father owns this entire world, He created it. And all that He has is ours, if we would simply realize that His commandments are not there to "destroy" or "ruin" our lives, but to make us better, to help us in our walk with Him, and to bring true peace, true joy, and true happiness into our lives.

We spend way too much time looking for happiness in the "dimes" we can scrounge up in this world, when all of the riches of Jesus Christ are available to us if we simply trust Him and obey. The commandments of God in His Word are for our own good.

The Bible says; "And these things we write to you that your joy may be full." (I Jn. 1:4).