This is another example of two opposite extreme financial systems- one is an earthly System and the other is a Kingdom System.
As we see in that passage from Genesis 3 below, the world’s cursed system involves a whole lot of striving and hard, unpleasant, ineffective effort.
This is what God said to Adam. And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.” — Genesis 3:17-19
You probably see people working within the earth cursed system all the time. They are constantly trying to make things happen. These people have a tendency to maneuver and manipulate in their efforts to control the outcome of whatever situation they are in.
The Bible describes this in Ecclesiastes.
“For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.” — Ecclesiastes 2:22-23
Contrast that worldly striving to Jesus telling us about how it should be when we follow him. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light”. — Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus also said that when we seek first the Kingdom of God, then everything people in the world chase after will be added to us anyway (Matt 6:33). So we no longer have to strive to get ahead. Now we can rest in the finished work of Jesus.
Listen to this promise: And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. — Deuteronomy 28:2
Because Jesus obeyed God perfectly, and because we are now in him, we are now legally entitled to all those blessings in the first part of Deuteronomy chapter 28 as if we fulfilled the law ourselves. Blessings should overtake us. We don’t have to go out and toil or strive to receive them. When we believe, blessings chase us down.
We can set aside the worry about how things are going to work out because the results are God’s responsibility, not ours. It’s a whole lot more restful to do only those things we hear from God because when we’re following his plan then he’s the one responsible for the results, not us.
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