Dust

 Lot went from prioritizing his physical comfort over his spiritual well-being to being grateful to get out of Sodom alive. He went from defending his decision to enter Sodom and make a home therein to understanding that all is dust, nothing lasts, and fleeting things such as flocks, wealth, and excess can be stripped from you in the blink of an eye.

If in your season of plenty you retained God, when the season of famine comes, you still have God. If, however, you gave up a relationship with God in order to attain the baubles so prized by the world, when they are taken, nothing but dread and sorrow remain.

The way of life ebbs and flows. I’ve seen rich men brought to ruin, and I’ve seen paupers grow wealthy overnight. Nowadays, it seems this is the case more than ever before, and if your heart is in any way tethered to possessions if you prioritize them rather than a relationship with Christ, the fall won’t just cause bruises. It will break bones.

Lot remained in a place his spiritual man told him he wasn’t supposed to be in because his flesh felt betters sleeping in a bed with a roof and a hearth than a tent surrounded by sheep and goats.

To Abram, such things were trivial. He didn’t care where he ended up as long as God was with him, and because the will of God was his preeminent desire, God made Abram a stunning promise.

Genesis 13:14-17, “And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”

It was after Abram showed deference to Lot in allowing him to choose first and after Lot had departed that God spoke to him. God knew Abram’s heart from the beginning, but He appreciated the follow-through. Words without action are like clouds without rain. The ground remains parched and dry no matter how overcast it may get. Only when the rain falls does the earth quench its thirst.

Less talking and more doing is a good starting point for much of the church today, especially those in leadership whose vision of themselves and their grandeur has pushed everything else, including God, out of the frame.

When we are content with the presence of God alone, without qualifiers, vested interests, or personal profit, He will bless us in ways we dared not envision or imagine. When He is sufficient in us is when He can entrust us with more, knowing that our hearts will remain His, and our desire for more of Him will be exclusive of everything else.

God is not a means to an end. He is not the vehicle you use to attain fame, fortune, or fanfare. He is the goal, the target, and the ultimate objective of our striving and desire. What many are doing today is akin to someone courting a young lady but secretly hoping to get with her sister. It’s not real love or affection; it’s an exploitable opportunity for them to get what they really want.

You can want God or the things God can give you. If you pretend to want God hoping to get something other than Him, understand that He knows man’s heart and the duplicity thereof. You can’t fool God; if you think you can, you’re just fooling yourself.

The man who sought to save his possessions and look out for his comfort ended up with a handful of dust, and the man who sought to please God ended up with all the land he could see. Abram didn’t set out to ingratiate himself or weasel his way into a position whereby he could take advantage of God’s largesse. He didn’t go about constructing a narrative that would lead to God blessing him; he just wanted to be in the presence of God, spend time with Him, and fellowship with Him.

The intentionality of Abram’s purpose was pure, and God knew it to be so. He was neither double-minded nor duplicitous. He did not use God or his relationship with Him to make requests for more; he understood that there’s only so much you can eat, you can only sleep in one tent at a time, and at the end of it all, you take nothing with you.

If we are not content with the exclusive presence of God but always need some addendum, some add-on, some extra thing beside Him here on earth, if we can’t bear to spend an hour with Him each morning, how will we manage eternity in His presence?

The Lord knows those who are His, but by the same token, He knows those who are not. He knows those who are His but also those who pretend to be. You can declare your veganism every hour on the hour, but if I see you digging into a steak medium rare, your declarations are proven lies and nothing more than empty words of as little value as the dust Lot held in his hands.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.