11/06/2018
Are you living for the here and now? So many people go through life looking at the world as if what were happening at this instant in their life was of the utmost importance. They say that they plan, but they are making plans for tomorrow, and for how they will live out their life... seeing no further than the grave. God wants so much more for us than that; He wants to spend eternity with us.
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV
Parents know very well that young children fight going to sleep at bedtime; they resist it, and will continue to struggle against slumber until at last they can fight it no more, and collapse. Then, they are carried to their beds, dressed, limp as if they were rag dolls, kissed on their foreheads, and tucked in for the night. They do this because today is the extent of their faith, and the focus of their ambition; they know today, but they do not have confidence in tomorrow.
As adults we can be just like our children! We see the world we are living in today, but have no faith in God, Jesus Christ, or what is in store for us in eternity. We count our successes and failures based on what we can see and touch at this moment. Our joys and sorrows are in the present, and our suffering is predicated solely on today’s events. In this kind of existence we are players in a world in which we have dole faith in our own abilities and the future depends on our actions alone. Some say they are happy living in this way, but in the blink of an eye they can slip from happiness to tragedy, with no hope beyond death itself. We were made for so much more than this! We were made, and are here for a purpose, and that purpose doesn’t begin nor end with us, but with God. We were created in His image...
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”Genesis 1:27 ESV
Then without waiting to see how we might get along in life, He blessed us, told us to multiply, and gave us a purpose in the world...
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."”Genesis 1:28 ESV
This is where most people live who don’t truly know God, this is the “here and now” of existence, but that isn’t what He ultimately wants for us. This is the beginning... not the middle, and certainly not the end of us. Yes, God created us for his own pleasure, purposes, and love... we do not exist for any other reason. We were not created by our own devices, we do not multiply because that is our desire, and we do not have dominion over the earth because we have given ourselves knowledge, wisdom, and self-awareness... all these thing were, and are, from God.
“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”Colossians 1:16 ESV
But this is not the end of the story, nor God’s plan for us. We shouldn’t see our lives fatalistically, and deem ourselves to be simple toys of pleasure, He tells us that isn’t the case in scripture such as these verses taken from Jeremiah...
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV
God the creator wants us to love Him, and He wants to love us. He wants us to serve Him, but He also wants to provide and give to us. Our creation wasn’t solely to present Himself with a possession, but with a creature with whom He could enter eternally into relationship with.
“"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”John 3:16-17 ESV
The desire of God is much more than to rule over us, but to live within us, and for us to live within Him. Jesus says this so profoundly in scripture with these words...
“In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."”John 14:20-21 ESV
So look beyond today, tomorrow, and even the grave. Don’t judge your life based on what you see, touch, and accumulate. Have faith in love which is more than what this world offers, and place your faith in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, who wish to abide with you in joy, and relationship through all eternity. Love is the light that shines from heaven and illuminates our path through the relationships we have here in this world, to the ultimate relationship we experience with our Heavenly Father.
“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”1 John 4:16-17 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the love by which you have created us, and the ability to love that you have imbedded deep within each of us. Thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who was not sent out of purpose, but by your ever faithful love for us. How unworthy I feel Heavenly Father to have been so loved by you, and to have been sacrificed for in such a way. Call my attention away from the riches of the world Lord, and focus my desire on those heavenly things that I can neither see nor touch. Let me put great value in your love and those things that comprise your character, and see the rewards of this world for what they are... fleeting. You are the glory and the love that I feel within me, and the hope in which I abide; be with me now and eternally Holy Father, for greater are you who is in me than he who is in the earth. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who loves me to the end of time, and forever more.
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Romans 8:38-39 ESV
Rich Forbes