Ezra 4:3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, "You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the LORD God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us."
2 Chron 26:18 And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, "It pertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honor from the LORD God."
Mark 2:23-24 And it came to pass that He went through the cornfields on the Sabbath day; and His disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. 24 And the Pharisees said unto Him, "Behold, why do they do on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful?"
One of the meanings of saying that "something is not proper" is that "it is not allowed" - we can see that in the reactions of Pharisees when they saw thedisciples pluck corn on the Sabbath day. Another meaning is that there's no relation to it being right or wrong, but it relates to the fact whether the thing is suitable for us or not. We could also say that the matter is our business or that the matter is not our business. Understanding what is proper for us, also effects how we believe, or what we are trying to achieve with our faith.
A person can gain things with several ways. One of them is earning money and buying them. This is a common way on the human level, but what can a man pay for himself? What can human offer to God for his own life? Another way is getting something as a present. No one has a claim on a gift, and the gift doesn't belong to anyone but to the person it was given to. It is much easier to give a gift, when the receiving person doesn't expect it, but when it is spontaneous. When someone helps other people or pretends to be a friend of them just to receive a gift, he usually doesn't get anything. God also gives us gifts spontaneously. For example, he has given us the gift of mercy. Mercy wasn't given to us for the number or quality of our deeds, but because God had decided that he would give it to us because he is merciful. God doesn't want us to follow Him because of His gifts, but on the contrary, He expects us to bedisinterested in following Him. God can see if we follow him just because of His gifts or because of the righteousness. We cannot build our lives on gifts.We must build our lives on what belongs to us and is proper for us. So, another way to gain something is to accept something that belongs to us. We can gain things that belong to us from God by faith. Faith is not means to get thing that don't belong to us (or are not proper for us).
As an example of our relationship to God, let's take the relationship between children and parents. Children like to receive gifts from their parents, but i.e. dinner belongs to them, it's a proper part of life for them. It is not a gift and children understand that. When parents want to give their children a gift, they think of something above the range of things that belongs to their children. A child doesn't thank for something that belongs to him, as if it was a gift. That is not proper. Christians sometimes pray for something that belongs to them, as if it was a gift. And many Christian books even teach so. But this is not proper. There's a different way of praying for something that already belongs to us. People behave in a similar way. A man cannot give somebodysomething that already belongs to him and want him to call it a gift. It is not appropriate to pray for His everyday care for us, as if it was a gift. This way is not a sign of spiritual maturity, but misunderstanding our position in God's eyes. It is necessary to accept it what belongs to us through faith and understanding. We can pray for gifts as well, but we need to know that the thing doesn't belong to us. But the most of the things that we gain belong to us - we need to accept them with faith, but they belong to us.
Therefore we need to study God's word so we could know what belongs to us and start behaving that way. A man should find things that belong to him and are proper for him in every part of life - what service and position in church is proper, etc. When a man lives in what's proper for him, he has a good life - it's easy to be who you are. The man then has enough space to care about other people as well. We need to look in the Scriptures what belongs to us.
