In Light of Eternity

    Did you know there are powerful forces at work within us?  We continually seek to satisfy the drive for pleasure, possessions, and prestige.  There is a constant preoccupation to set up our own personal kingdom here on earth.  We accumulate material possessions and crave status.  We desire to gratify bodily appetites that are never satisfied.  We become frustrated by this human perspective that focuses on the desire to get what we want and we always want more.  At times these unfulfilled longings cause us to hurt others who appear to stand in our way.  Yet the scripture exhorts us that our real world is not just found in the here and now.  “…Men of faith, though they trusted God and won His approval, none of them received all that God had promised them; for God wanted them to wait and share the even better rewards that were prepared for us.”  Heb 11:39, 40   We do have genuine needs but the believer looks to Christ to meet those needs.  “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”  Phil 4:19   Cardinal J Newman writes, “Life passes, riches fly way, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes.  One alone is true to us; one alone can be all things to us; one alone can supply our need.” 

    We have been given an amazing tool with which to build our lives and fulfill many of the desires of our heart.  This instrument of God’s grace is prayer.  While talking with God we discover He is always there answering, guiding, and meeting our needs.  Often we forget His standing invitation to ask.  “…The reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it.”  James 4:2   Instead of taking our requests to Him in prayer, we try to get what we want in our own way.  How wonderful that at salvation we were given a brand new vision for life.  It is centered on investing in the heavenly kingdom not an earthly domain.  “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”  Matt 6:33   “I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ.”  David Livingstone   Dear Christian, because we have been born into this new life, the things of the world lose their importance in the light of God’s vast rewards and the splendor of eternity.