AT THEIR LONGEST, OUR LIVES IN THIS WORLD ARE QUITE BRIEF. With astonishing swiftness, we enjoy our youth, reach our maturity . . . and then suddenly find ourselves facing the end. Sooner or later, we all come to appreciate what Job meant when he said, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job 7:6).

It is undeniably true that our earthly lives go by quickly, and we need to know that it’s true. We may not WANT to know it, but we NEED to know it. The more frankly we face that fact, the more reverently we’ll live our lives while they last. So David was a wise man when he prayed, “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.”

Look at what happens when we don’t face life’s brevity:

(1) WE SPEND THE FIRST HALF OF LIFE PRODIGALLY. Prodigal actions are wasteful, that is, they spend limited resources as if they were unlimited. Isn’t that the way we “spend” our days prior to middle age? Thinking the “supply” is unlimited, we’re not very careful.

(2) WE LIVE WITHOUT REGARD FOR GOD. Failing to face the brevity of life, we also fail to take God into account in our actions. If we even believe there will be a day of judgment, we assume it’s so far in the future that it has little bearing on our day-to-day conduct.

(3) WE LIVE WITH LITTLE PERSPECTIVE, WHICH CAUSES US TO ERR IN OUR DECISIONS. Many of our most important decisions are made on the basis of assumptions about “how much time we’ve got left,” and faulty assumptions in that area can seriously skew our judgment. Taking our lease on life for granted, we make shortsighted choices.

So we need to live life with death in mind. Our minds should be governed by neither a morbid fascination with death nor a gloomy fatalism, but simply a healthy understanding that WE HAVE ONLY A FEW DAYS IN WHICH TO GET OUR WORK DONE. When the time came for Jesus to die, He had accomplished His life’s work in the time that was granted to Him, and He could say, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Is there any chance that you and I can say the same?

“Here’s death, twitching my ear: ‘Live,’ says he, ‘for I am coming’” (Virgil).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO MOST PEOPLE IS THE SATISFACTION OF THEIR WORLDLY DESIRES. Even if they acknowledge that there are some spiritual realities over and beyond the concerns of this world, most people spend most of their time trying to satisfy the latter rather than the former. Basically, as the writer of Ecclesiastes observed, “the labor of man is for his mouth.” And maybe we wouldn’t put it so strongly, but when Paul described some by saying that their “god is their belly” (Philippians 3:19), he might easily have been commenting on our own culture.

And yet, for all our effort, we end up being distinctly UNSATISFIED. No matter what we manage to enjoy, the question still seems to be: IS THAT ALL THERE IS? So frankly, what should be our attitude?

First, we need to admit the transitory nature of all temporal pleasures and possessions. Yes, it’s right to enjoy what God has created in this world, but we shouldn’t expect more from this enjoyment than it was intended to deliver. We may “hold” these things, as long as we’re willing to let go of them at any moment.

Second, we need to spend less time pursuing these things and more time seeking God. With our words we may say that God is our most pressing priority, but if our schedule books show that on most days we spend very little time on that pursuit, who are we fooling? Where our heart is, there our “To Do” list will be also.

Ultimately, we can’t “get” anything more out of our existence than what we “want.” And so we need to be careful what we want. Eventually, all of our alternatives come down to two choices: (1) We can live for no higher fulfillment than our worldly desires, and having gotten them, find ourselves still empty inside, or (2) we can hunger and thirst for righteousness and find ourselves “filled” where it counts the most (Matthew 5:6). To the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13,14). It’s worth asking whether we really believe that or not.

“Naught but God can satisfy the soul” (Philip James Bailey).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

AS WE REACH TOWARD GOD, WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE REACHING UPWARD. In every conceivable way, God is ABOVE us. His ways and His thoughts are as far above ours “as the heavens are higher than the earth.” Obviously, our wisdom and power are less than His, but what’s more important, our “authority” is less than His. He is the Creator; we are His creatures. He is the King; we are His subjects. He is far above us in every way.

HIERARCHY. It may not be in fashion nowadays, but the notion of “hierarchy” is a valid concept. Everywhere we look, from the physical cosmos to the animal kingdom, reality is ordered in hierarchies and structured in ranks. And somewhere deep inside, we understand that this is necessary and beneficial. It’s time we admitted that there is nothing inherently demeaning about occupying a lower rank than someone else in the larger scale of life.

HUMILITY. Accepting the fact that God is above us and we are under His rule, we need to have the humility to WELCOME His perspective, His thoughts, and His will for our lives. In our real-life decisions, we need to YIELD to the high wisdom that He alone has.

HAPPINESS. There are great benefits that flow from having the right attitude toward all that is around us, and it’s no exaggeration to say that the greatest happiness of all is that of taking our proper place in the vast scheme of God’s creation, gladly under His rule.

If the truth be told, we NEED something superior to us to yearn for and to reach toward. Though we often suppose that independence, autonomy, and equality are the things we need, what we really need is some One HIGHER than we — One in whose supremacy and sovereignty we may rest. Even in this life, security comes from having good rulers and good laws, and certainly in the life to come, what we long for is the perfect, benevolent rule of a King who is, as Paul wrote, eternal, immortal, and all-wise. To Him “be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).

“Man, whether he likes it or not, is a being forced by his nature to seek some higher authority” (Jose Ortega y Gasset).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

PETER WROTE THAT WE OUGHT TO LOOK FORWARD TO OUR LORD’S RETURN, AND IF HIS RETURN IS DELAYED, LOOK UPON THAT DELAY AS THE VERY THING THAT MAKES OUR SALVATION POSSIBLE. There is no way around the fact that our salvation depends on the Lord’s longsuffering. If He were as impatient as we are, our opportunity for improvement would have run out long ago. If we end up being saved, we will owe that salvation to the Lord’s willingness to wait.

OPPORTUNITY FOR REPENTANCE. The Lord’s delay in returning is not license to enjoy our sins for a while longer; it’s an extended opportunity to get those things out of our character. Paul asked the pertinent question when he said, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4).

OPPORTUNITY FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH. In terms of our spiritual maturity, none of us is where we need to be. We need more time to grow, and that is just what the Lord is giving us with His longsuffering. While He waits, we must use every day as a day of growth.

OPPORTUNITY FOR EVANGELISM. Not only does the Lord’s longsuffering mean salvation for us, it can mean salvation for those around us too. The more time we have before the end, the more time we have to get His message out to others. Every day the world still stands is a day that must be used evangelistically.

When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, he used an expression that ought to suggest the most horrifying thing imaginable. He said, “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you NOT TO RECEIVE THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN” (2 Corinthians 6:1). Do we receive the grace of God in vain? To do that would be to WASTE the patience and longsuffering that God has shown us, ending up being lost despite the fact that God waited and waited and waited. If God has not yet come to judge the world that does not mean that He is indifferent to evil; it means that He is still holding the door of salvation open. His longsuffering is nothing less than our salvation. We are the world’s greatest fools if we don’t see that.

“Hell is God’s justice; heaven is his love; earth, his longsuffering” (Anonymous).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

BETWEEN NOW AND THE TIME OF OUR DEPARTURE FROM THIS LIFE, THERE IS A “RACE” THAT HAS TO BE RUN. And frankly, the image of a race is mainly an image of pain. Anyone who has ever run a footrace of any distance knows that before the end finally comes, every muscle in the runner’s body cries out for relief. And the longer the race, the more tempting it is to simply quit running.

A GREAT CLOUD OF WITNESSES. When we run as God’s people, we are doing something that many, many others have done before us. And the writer of Hebrews describes those who’ve gone before as a “great cloud of witnesses,” a stadium full of supportive spectators cheering us onward with the hearty cry, “You can do it!”

LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT. In addition to supporters, we also happen to have a spiritual adversary whose purpose it is to defeat us. We must not let him have his way. The “sin which so easily ensnares us” must be laid aside. It’s a very simple matter. Either we decide to lay our sins aside, or they will be the undoing of us.

RUN WITH ENDURANCE. We are not in a sprint but a marathon. For all we know, it may be many years before the time comes for us to rest. But remember the “cloud of witnesses”? One of those witnesses is Paul, who wrote toward the end of his life, “I have finished the race” (2 Timothy 4:7). He did it, and we can do it too.

But there’s no chance we’ll do what Paul did if we’re not motivated by what motivated him: THE GLORIOUS PROSPECT OF BEING WITH CHRIST FOREVER. He said that he had sacrificed every worldly thing that ever mattered to him: “that I may gain Christ and be found in Him . . . that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11). Any goal less powerful than this will fail to keep us going. We must fix our hearts upon our Lord and determine that we are going to run the race, come whatever may. There can be no question or equivocation about it. So let us not merely study or think about running the race. LET US RUN THE RACE.

“To believe in heaven is not to run away from life; it is to run toward it” (Joseph D. Blinco).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

IF WE’RE HONEST, WE’LL ADMIT THAT WE SOMETIMES LOOK BACK AND LONG FOR THE WORLD THAT WE’VE BEEN DELIVERED FROM. Just as the people of Israel foolishly thought, once they were in the wilderness, that their lives had been better back in Egypt, so we may think that the difficulties of doing what’s right are too hard and that life was better back when we simply lived for the moment. It’s a fact that gaining freedom from slavery involves a good deal of danger and discomfort, whether the slavery is physical or spiritual. And we may think that although being a slave had its disadvantages, they were at least tolerable in comparison to the more grievous hardships of freedom. And so our old “comfort zone” calls us. It’s tempting to give up the struggle and go back.

On one occasion, when Jesus was impressing on His disciples the need for decisive action, He said, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). In the act of escaping the destruction of Sodom, Lot’s wife perished, not for going back but simply for looking back.

On another occasion, Jesus said, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). We show ourselves unthankful and unworthy of the grace that has been granted to us if we look back from our work in the Lord and think that our lives were better before that work began.

Does this mean we should never even THINK about our pre-Christian past? No, but it does mean that we should reject that past decisively and never give the thought of going back a chance to get a grip on our minds. To the extent that thinking about the past helps motivate us to serve God more faithfully, then we should think about it. Paul, for example, seemed to work harder as an evangelist when he thought about his past (1 Corinthians 15:9,10). But if thinking about “Egypt” tempts us to go back there, even if it’s just in our hearts, then we must determine not to do it. After all, it is not backward but FORWARD that we are reaching.

“Shut out all of your past except that which will help you weather your tomorrows” (Sir William Osler).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

IF IT’S FORWARD THAT WE WANT TO MOVE, LOVE IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING TO PROPEL US IN THAT DIRECTION. As a motivator, love really has no equal. It’s “as strong as death.” It burns with a flame that “many waters cannot quench.” If someone you know is trying to do something and love is the reason why, you’d be wise to get out of the way. The thing is very likely going to happen.

Wouldn’t we reach forward more fervently in life if our love for God were more affectionate? If the word “passion” accurately described our love for God, could anything hold us back? For too long, most of us have loved God too little and with too little fire.

The love that we so desperately need in our relationship to God is a thing that we can choose to have. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind (Matthew 22:37), and that is a command we are capable of obeying. We can choose to think rightly about God, and then we can feed our minds on the truths that He has revealed about Himself in the Scriptures. When we do that with the genuine intent to be what He created us to be, we will find ourselves loving Him, adoring Him, and longing to be with Him now and forever.

It is no mere happenstance that God ordained the Lord’s Supper for His people. Of all the things that can feed our love, none is more powerful than meditating, with other Christians, on the staggering, unfathomable love shown at the cross of Christ.

The world, the flesh, and the devil must be FOUGHT. But the simple fact is, we fight a losing battle if love is left out of the mix. If we don’t have the help of our HEARTS in serving God, it’s not likely that we’ll hold out to the end. So, my friend, it is imperative that your activities be motivated by love, first for God and second for your neighbor. If that’s the case (and God certainly knows whether it is or not), then discouragement will not defeat you. Other motives may falter, but “many waters cannot quench love.”

“Love can hope where reason would despair” (Lord George Lyttelton).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

THERE IS NO AVOIDING OUR FUTURE APPOINTMENT TO BE JUDGED BY THE GOD WHO MADE US. When our lives have finally run out, we will die. And when that happens, “the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” Having been created by God, our spirits will return to Him. We will give account of ourselves. It is inevitable.

WE ARE CREATURES, OR CREATED BEINGS. If we simply “happened” to exist as a result of merely physical processes, then at some point we would cease to exist. But we didn’t just happen to exist; we were CREATED, and it is to our Creator that we will return. Where we are going has more than a little to do with where we came from!

WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO OUR CREATOR. To be personal beings is a truly awe-inspiring fact. It means that we bear RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR ACTIONS. Freedom of the will is a marvelous gift, and the use of it is something that we shall have to answer for at the end of our lives. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

By far the most important question in life is whether, having returned to God, we will be allowed to REMAIN with Him. If we leave this life in a right relationship with God, we will hear Him say, “Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matthew 25:21). But if not, we will hear, “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matthew 7:23).

Yet the anticipation of our return to God need not be fearful — it ought to be joyful. That prospect can’t be joyful if we spend the years of our sojourn here in selfish indulgence, disregarding the things of God, and in fact, it can’t be joyful if we simply live carelessly. But there is no reason why all of us can’t make the same deliberate choices that Paul did and be able to say what he said: “The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

“All days travel toward death, the last one reaches it” (Michel de Montaigne).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

NOTHING TESTS OUR CHARACTER ANY MORE THAN HAVING TO CHOOSE BETWEEN MOTIVES. When there is a good deed to be done, for example, our character is tested: will we do it simply to glorify God or will we do it “to be seen by men”? That is a hard choice — much harder than most of us are willing to admit.

Praise itself is not evil, of course, but there’s no denying that it has the potential to hurt us. Indeed, it’s a rare person who can receive more than a moderate amount of recognition and not have his or her attitude marred by it. That doesn’t stop us from wanting it, however. As Norman Vincent Peale once said, “Most of us would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”

As for our motives, it’s hard to be honest as to what they really are. The desire to be noticed and recognized as having done something good can be so subtle that it can be our real motive at times when we would say that it isn’t. In a given situation, it’s difficult to see when the thing that we really want is to be praised.

Perhaps it is stating it too strongly to say that we want “to be seen by men.” But what about that word “recognized”? A little appreciative attention is an intoxicating thing. Once we’ve experienced it, even as children, it’s easy for that to become the payoff that we seek (be truthful now) in every transaction thereafter.

The needs of self, including the need to be appreciated, are not unimportant, of course. But God has set up reality such that SELF’S NEEDS ARE SATISFIED MOST FULLY WHEN WE PUT OUR PRIORITIES ELSEWHERE. Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, AND ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED TO YOU” (Matthew 6:33).

So let’s be very honest. Why do we do what we do for God? Do we serve Him as faithfully in private as in public? If no one ever noticed or thanked us, would we be content simply to know that God had been glorified? And if so, would we then avoid the opposite sin: being privately smug, knowing that we are “big” enough to do what’s right even though nobody appreciates us?

“I cannot say ‘Thine is the glory’ if I am seeking my own glory first” (Anonymous).

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com

INTO EVERY LIFE SOME RAIN MUST FALL, AND EACH OF US HAS “SOWN” HIS SHARE OF TEARS. But God has made it possible that those who “sow in tears shall reap in joy.” We might wish the harvest time were already here, but that time is not yet. For all we know, it MAY be very near, and in fact, we are taught to live each day in the EXPECTATION of Christ’s return. But for now anyway, the harvest is still future. Rather than speculate or worry about the reasons for God’s delay of the harvest, we should enter willingly into these days of sowing, even if it is tears that must be sown. In the words of John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “Thine is the seed time: God alone / Beholds the end of what is sown; / Beyond our vision weak and dim / The harvest time is hid with him.”

It takes faith, of course, to hold on to the confidence that the sowing of tears will be followed by a reaping in joy. On many days, it certainly doesn’t seem like things are going to work out that way. But we must choose to have the attitude of Paul: “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

If we’re “reaching forward to those things which are ahead” (Philippians 3:13), that means we’re “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12). For a while yet, THIS is the world where our work must be done and where, yes, our tears must be sown. But this world is not all there is. If we’ve obeyed the gospel of Christ and are living our lives in Him, then we’re moving toward a realm where our tears will give way to utter joy. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Beyond this vale of tears
There is a life above
Unmeasured by the flight of years
And all that life is love.
(James Montgomery)

Gary Henry – WordPoints.com