If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning. —Romans 14:23

A question believers never should ask is, “Can I do this and still be a Christian?” That is a dangerous thing to be asking. Instead, what believers should be asking is, “As a Christian, what can I do to be closer to God?”

Paul said, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Corinthians 6:12 NKJV). It is not so much a matter of whether we can technically do something as Christians and still be saved. Rather, these are the questions we should be asking ourselves: “If I do this thing, is it possible that it could bring me under its power?”; “If I do this thing, is it possible that I could be a bad witness to others?”; “If I do this thing, can I still give glory to God?”

If you have a working conscience and understanding of the Scriptures, then you will know whether a Christian ought to be doing something. You will know there are certain things that you should not do.

Then there are times when one believer will have a conviction that another believer doesn’t necessarily have. The Bible says in Romans 14:23, “If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.” Or, as The Living Bible puts it, “Anyone who believes that something he wants to do is wrong shouldn’t do it. He sins if he does, for he thinks it is wrong, and so for him it is wrong. Anything that is done apart from what he feels is right is sin.”

There always will be the temptation to lower our standards in order to extend our reach. But if you compromise now, you will regret it later.

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Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”—Hebrews 13:5

What do you live for? What gets your heart beating? What fires you up? Everyone lives for something.

The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “But you, Timothy, certainly know what I teach, and how I live, and what my purpose in life is” (2 Timothy 3:10). He also said, “For to me, living means living for Christ” (Philippians 1:21). To the church in Corinth he wrote, “For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Paul had a determined purpose in life. What is yours? Is your purpose to have fun? It is for some people. Life is all about having fun. “I don’t care,” they say, “let’s just have fun.” Or maybe they are chasing after pleasure. Or maybe life is all about success. Maybe it is all about making money. Others live for sports. Some live for emotional experiences. Still others live for a relationship. But everyone lives for something.

As Christians, we should not be seeking happiness but holiness. The most unhappy people are people who live to be happy. If we seek after happiness, we will end up being miserable people. But if we seek to be holy—and by that I mean seek to be godly men or godly women—then we will discover that happiness comes into our lives as a byproduct. Don’t seek pleasure; seek purpose. Don’t seek success; seek significance.

That thing you live for, that god you bow before, will it be with you in your hour of need? If it is any god, any idol, anything or anyone else apart from God, it won’t be there for you. But the Lord will. Wherever you go, God goes with you. You have His Word on it.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. —1 John 5:21

A story from the pages of church history tells of a courageous Christian who lived in the days of the Roman Empire. Arrested for being a follower of Christ and a preacher of the gospel, the man was brought before the emperor of Rome, who told him to either give up Christ or be banished.

The Christian replied, “You cannot banish me from Christ, for God says, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ ”

The ruler said, “I will confiscate your property.”

“My treasures are laid up in heaven,” the Christian answered. “You can’t touch them.”

“Then I will kill you.”

“I’ve been dead to the world in Christ for forty years,” the Christian said. “My life is hid with Christ in God. You can’t touch it.”

Turning to other members of his court, the emperor said in disgust, “What can you do with such a fanatic?”

There will come a time in every Christian’s life when he or she is faced with the choice to bow before someone or something. The Bible says, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). An idol is anyone or anything that takes the place of God in your life. An idol can be a person. It can be a relationship. It can be your car or your house. It can be your career. It can be your physique. An idol is something that is more important to you than God Himself. It is something that you effectively bow before and it causes you to compromise in your faith.

We need Christians today who will make a stand. So often we compromise. We will bend. We will cave in because it isn’t politically correct or popular. But let’s remember that a little with God is better than a lot without Him.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad–for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.—1 Peter 4:12–13

It has been said that Christians are a lot like teabags; you don’t know what they’re made of until you put them into hot water. Maybe you’re in hot water right now. Maybe you’re going through what we might describe as a fiery trial. The good news is you are not the first person to go through it, nor will you be the last. You are not alone in your trial.

And here is something else to consider: going through a trial or a temptation is a confirmation that you are on the right track as a Christian. If you were to say, “You know, Greg, as a Christian I can’t remember the last time I was tempted,” my question would be, “What is wrong with you?” The devil sets his sights on those who are a threat to the kingdom of God.

You shouldn’t be surprised or shocked if you are tempted or tested. In 1 Peter 4:12–13 we’re told, “Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.”

Hardship, temptation, tragedy, and the loss of a loved one will come into our lives one day. Trials and temptations will come too. Take steps now to be prepared for that. Don’t say, “That will never happen to me.”

News flash: It will happen to you. Life is filled with pain. Granted, some have more than others, but every life will have some. We should gather this truth into our hearts so we are prepared when trials and temptations come our way.

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“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” —James 1:14–16

In James 1:14–16 we have the five steps of temptation:

1. The temptation itself. “But each one is tempted . . .”

The evil thought knocks on the door of your imagination. As they say, “Opportunity knocks once, but temptation beats on the door every day.” It happens to the best of us; there are no exceptions. There is no sin here yet. It is not the bait that constitutes temptation, but the bite. There’s still a way out.

2. You are now under its power and enjoying the experience.

“Drawn away by his own desires . . .”

You are now “taking it for a test drive.” It’s been said, “What makes temptation difficult for many people is they don’t want to discourage it completely.”

3. You are almost hooked. “Drawn away . . . and enticed.”

Continue reading Greg Laurie – The Five Steps of Temptation →

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.—Psalm 119:67

Sometimes God will allow suffering and sickness in our lives to get our attention. We may be rebelling against Him, and He wants us to change our direction. He wants it to stop.

We see an example of this in the life of Jonah. God told Jonah to go preach to the Ninevites, but Jonah went in the opposite direction instead. He was disobeying the Lord. And because the Lord loved Jonah, He went after him. God will not let His children run too far. He got Jonah’s attention, turned things around, and turned the prophet around.

As the psalmist said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.” (Psalm 119:67). Sometimes God will allow a situation in our lives to wake us up to our real need.

Maybe you have had a wake-up call recently. Maybe you’ve received a call from a doctor who said, “I am concerned about these tests. I want you to come back in. I want to run some more.”

Suddenly you’re filled with panic. You’re saying, “God, I love You. I’m going to follow You and serve You. I’m going to go to the mission field. I will do anything.” Then you go in and they run the other set of tests. Everything looks good. You’re okay. And suddenly you’re back to your old ways again. What happened to all of those vows?

If you’ve had a wake-up call, then wake up.

Maybe God is allowing you to go through something that doesn’t make any sense right now. But one day it will make sense.

The Devil can do nothing in the life of the believer without God’s permission. The Lord is ultimately in control. He is in control of all circumstances that surround the life of the believer.

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“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”—Job 23:10

When you go through a hardship, it will make you better or bitter. I have found it is usually one or the other. And guess who decides that? You do. You are the one who decides whether you will be better by trusting in the Lord or whether you will be bitter by turning against the Lord.

Sometimes people who have experienced a tragedy in their lives will say, “I’ve lost my faith through this.” That’s good. Because their faith wasn’t real to begin with. If you are a real believer, your faith will not go away when hardship hits. It will get stronger. The faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. Tragedy reveals who the real believers are.

Suffering helps us grow spiritually and makes us stronger in the faith. It takes our faith from the realm of theory to reality. It reminds me of guys who drive around in their tricked-out four-wheelers. They have done everything to their vehicles, adding massive tires and wheels as well as all kinds of hardware. But ask one of them if he ever takes his vehicle off road, and he’ll say, “Are you kidding? Do you know what I’ve spent on this thing? I’m going to the car wash.” He would never consider taking his four-wheeler off road, even though that is what it was designed for.

In the same way, it’s easy to talk about our faith. But it’s another thing to live by it. A lot of us will boast about the number of years we have known the Lord and how many verses we have memorized. That is all good. But when your faith is tested, we will find out what you are really made of.

Suffering does not create character; it reveals it.

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Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”—Job 38:1–2

Whenever I post on my Facebook page about our son Christopher going to be with the Lord, I’m amazed at the number of responses I receive. Every time I talk about this, I’m reminded there is a massive community of people who are in pain around the world.

One person wrote me and said, “My son would have been sixteen years old this year. It has been fifteen years since his death, but he was the person who brought me to the Lord. Because of his death, I received my salvation. . . . I have found salvation through God’s Son because of the loss of mine.” I found that to be powerful.

Basically a horrific tragedy brought this person to Christ, but I am not saying that is the reason it happened. I think we make a big mistake when we connect dots like that. Do we think God could not reach a person without the death of another? Here is what I will say: This death happened. It is tragic. It is hard. But despite this tragedy, God worked and brought someone into His kingdom.

Let’s not try to explain the mysteries of God. We don’t know. I’m convinced that when I’m in Heaven, the things I thought were good in this life may be perceived as bad. Things that I perceived as bad in this life may be perceived as good.

We might say that good in this life is having everything go our way. But what if everything is going our way and we have no time for God? What if those bad things that happened in our lives brought us into a relationship with God? We would actually look at them and say they were good. Until that day, we simply need to trust God.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.”—Job 38:4

Had greeting card companies existed back in Job’s day, they definitely wouldn’t have hired Job’s three friends to write for them. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar initially had it right as they wept with their friend Job through his suffering. But then they started rambling on, basically offering the same lame explanations that people still offer today about suffering.

A card from Eliphaz would have read, “Sorry you are sick. . . . You got what you deserved.”

Bildad’s card would have said, “Hoping you get well soon.” But then the inside would have read, “But if you were really as godly as you claimed to be, this would not have happened.”

Zophar’s card would have been the most brutal of all. The outside would have read, “I hope you get worse.” But Zophar wouldn’t have stopped there. The inside of his card would have said, “You will die. No one will remember you. You will be thrown away like dung.”

As we move further into the book of Job, we see Job asking the question why five times in chapter 3. By the way, there is nothing wrong with asking why when you’re suffering. Even Jesus cried out at Calvary, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). It isn’t wrong to ask why. It isn’t a lack of faith to ask why. But don’t expect an answer. Quite frankly, if God gave you the answer, you wouldn’t understand it anyway.

Even if the Lord did tell you why things happen the way they do, would that ease your pain or heal your broken heart? Does reading the X-ray take away the pain of a broken leg? It comes down to this: We live on promises, not explanations. We should not spend too much time asking why.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”—2 Corinthians 4:7

I read about someone who just paid one million dollars for a Fender Stratocaster. Why so much? It was the guitar Bob Dylan played at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

The festival was a defining moment for Dylan, who went from playing acoustic to electric. The folk purists saw this as an act of treachery.

That purchase may make a little more sense than the person who paid $380,000 for a burned guitar. That was also a Fender Strat, but it was played by Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival. He played the song “Wild Thing” and then set his guitar on fire!

The value in both of these guitars was in who played them. If I were to play a Strat, it would go down in value. But, get Hendrix or Dylan or Eric Clapton to play it and the value goes up.

The disciples’ greatness was not because of who they were as individuals. It was because of who called and used them.

“This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthenware jar to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us. We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: We may be knocked down but we are never knocked out!” (2 Corinthians 4:7–9 PHI).

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Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” —Matthew 26:38

I wish you could have met me when I was twenty-one, because I knew everything then. I would have had an answer for any question you may have asked. But now that a few years have passed, I don’t know as much as I once did.

The fact is that I didn’t know as much as I thought I knew back then. And after more than forty years of ministry, I have found that one of the best things you can do for a hurting person is to just be there. Sometimes when we don’t know what to say, we simply don’t show up. That is wrong. Just being there means a lot to someone who is suffering.

When the time of Jesus’ crucifixion drew near, He went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. He knew exactly what was waiting for Him. He knew they would crucify Him. Worst of all, being God, He knew He would have to bear all the sins of the world. So Jesus went to Gethsemane and took Peter, James, and John along. Then He told them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me” (Matthew 26:38). Yes, Jesus is God. But He actually asked for His three friends to stay with Him and watch with Him during this time.

If you’re speaking to a grieving person, it’s often good to simply say something like “I love you” or “I am here” or “I am praying for you.” If they don’t want to talk, don’t talk. Don’t try to explain things, because explanations never heal a broken heart. Just sit there with them.

We have to avoid the easy answers and clichés when we’re trying to comfort the suffering, because if we aren’t careful, we may add to their pain.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

—Matthew 5:6

Have a nice day. We throw that expression around a lot in our culture. When you make a purchase, the cashier might say, “Thank you. Have a nice day.” Or, maybe you want to return something, and you’re told, “No, we cannot take that back again. Have a nice day.” It’s really their way of saying, “You can go now.”

But what does it really mean to have a nice day? I suppose it would be a day free of sickness, conflict, and hardship—a day that is, well, nice.

That is how God is sometimes perceived. We might imagine Him thundering from Mount Sinai, “Have a nice day!” We like to think of Him as perpetually smiling, wanting us all to be happy, healthy, and wealthy.

I’m not suggesting that God cannot or will not bless us with health or even wealth. Nor am I suggesting that God doesn’t want us to be happy. But that is not God’s primary objective for us. God doesn’t sit around in Heaven and wonder how He can make us happier. What God is really interested in is how He can make us more holy. He wants us to be holy more than He wants us to be happy.

The remarkable thing is that if you really are a holy person, then you will, in turn, be a happy person. Happiness is the fringe benefit of holiness. What does it mean to be holy? Maybe if we respelled holy as wholly, as in wholly committed, we would get a better understanding of the word. You can be wholly committed to surfing or wholly committed to golfing or wholly committed to money. That is a commitment.

If you want to be holy, be wholly committed to God. You will be happy as a result.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.—Acts 16:25

I think the worst thing that ever happened in history, the greatest travesty, the greatest injustice, was when Jesus Christ Himself was crucified. What could have been worse than that? What could have been worse than for God the Father to look down from Heaven and see His Son who He loved with all His heart suffering and dying for the sins of the world? How could God allow that? It was so awful.

Yet the Bible says, “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him” (Isaiah 53:10). Does this mean God was pleased in watching His Son suffer? Absolutely not. But God the Father was pleased in knowing this suffering would produce something wonderful called salvation for you and for me. As awful as it was, it accomplished God’s purpose. Out of the greatest bad came the greatest good. That is how God showed His love for us. As John tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

In the same way, when hardship comes and you are still praising the Lord, that blows the mind of the nonbeliever. Remember the story of Paul and Silas when they were thrown into prison for preaching the gospel? We read in Acts that “at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (16:25).

Maybe you are going through a hard time right now. Maybe you’re asking, “Why, God?”

God has a purpose. He has allowed it. God has either done it or He has allowed it. Deal with it the best that you can and seek to bring Him glory. That is a powerful testimony to a world that doesn’t know God.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”—Isaiah 55:8–9

Why does God allow tragedy? I’ve heard this question asked in many different versions, including these: Why would God allow wars to rage, killing innocent people? What about injustices in the world? Why are there epidemics? Why do horrible things happen? To the point, if God can prevent terrible tragedies, then why does He allow them to happen in the first place?

Let’s take a look at the core question first: If God is good and loving, why does He allow evil? The very question is based on a false premise. It’s essentially saying that God doesn’t necessarily meet our criteria for goodness. In essence, we’re making ourselves the moral centers of the universe.

God doesn’t become good because we think He is good or if our opinion of Him is good. God is good because God says He is good. Jesus said, “No one is good but One, that is, God” (Luke 18:19). God is good whether we believe it or not. God—and He alone—is the final court of arbitration. The Bible says, “Let God be true but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4).

That brings us to the question of what is good. Good is whatever God approves. It is not what you think is good. It is not what I think is good. It is not what we vote on as good. If God says it is good, then it is good. And if God says it is bad, then it is bad. Everything begins with God and ends with God.

As Isaiah 55:8–9 points out, God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. God’s ways are above our ways. There is no higher standard of goodness than God’s own character and His approval of whatever is consistent with that character. God is good. Period.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.”—Psalm 119:1–2

Surveys by Gallup, the National Opinion Research Center, and the Pew Organization conclude that spiritually committed people are twice as likely to report being “very happy” than the least religiously committed people.

So, happy people are spiritual people. But let me take it further: truly happy people are godly people. The Bible says, “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!” (Psalm 144:15 NKJV).

According to the Bible, if we seek to know God and discover His plan for our life, we will as a result, find the happiness that has eluded us for so long—not from seeking it but from seeking Him! As Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (NKJV).

C.S. Lewis said, “God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about faith. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

According to the Scriptures, happiness is never something that should be sought directly. It is always something that results from seeking something else.

If we seek holiness, we’ll find happiness.

And what is holiness? The word holiness has gotten a bad rap. If you hear that a person is “holier than thou,” it is not a good thing. But true holiness is not a fake, condescending, or mystical thing. Holiness can be understood better if we spell it another way: whollyness.

It was said of Caleb, “He wholly followed the Lord God” (Joshua 14:14 NKJV). When you wholly follow God, you will be a holy person—and a happy one too!

We find what we are looking for in life by seeking God, not seeking “it.” Henry Ward Beecher once said, “The strength and the happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too.”

So, if you want to be happy, be holy. In other words, live a life that’s wholly committed to Him.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News.—Romans 1:15

Prosperity is a very popular word today. Some preachers talk a lot about prosperity, and sometimes we refer to this as the prosperity gospel. This is basically the idea that God wants everyone to be in perfect health all the time, that sickness is always outside the will of God, and if you are sick, then you should just claim health, and you will be better. It is also the idea that God wants you to be very wealthy. But this is not what the Bible teaches.

Now, the Bible isn’t saying that we should all live in abject poverty and have nothing. But the Bible is saying that God’s definition of prosperity may be different than our definition of it. Prosperity doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is going easy and well. Prosperity means that you are in the will of God.

Continue reading Greg Laurie – God’s Definition of Prosperity →

Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.—1 Timothy 1:19

All of us hope for clear sailing in the sea of life. But there are storms that come our way, and there are shipwrecks that we will encounter. We will have things happen in our lives that don’t make sense.

The apostle Paul went through three literal shipwrecks during his lifetime (see 2 Corinthians 11:25). Now, that would cure you of ocean travel. But Paul also wrote about people who had their faith shipwrecked. In his epistle to Timothy, he warned, “Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked. Hymenaeus and Alexander are two examples . . .” (1 Timothy 1:19–20).

Some people have had their faith shipwrecked. I have seen it happen. Sometimes when people are facing a tragedy, they say, “I’ve lost my faith through this.”

Continue reading Greg Laurie – Shipwrecked Faith →