NOW? or THEN?

There was a famous Harvard study once, that proved a direct connection between long-term thinking and success. If you had an ultimate goal in mind and paced yourself to that goal, you would achieve it, if it was practical. “For a Christian, this should be easy,” you might state. Yet, we must remember that it the persistence that wins. Hebrews 12:1 reminds us, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,” Endurance is a key word here, because without it the race isn't won. Many think that because eternity is so far distant, we need to focus on the here and now. To an extent, this is true. We do have to live every day. However, we should not make the mistake of the barn builder in Lk. 12:20, to whom God stated “This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ The more focused on short-term gain, the more likely they were to fail. Those who focus on right now without a healthy respect for what is striving to be achieved in the distant future are doomed to be unsuccessful and fail.

Living with eternity in mind you can handle the momentary problems that come your way. It is the focus on the prize ahead, that makes your current pain and problems but petty interferences to be overcome. It’s not easy to be a believer, to do what’s right and definitely at times not easy to tell others about Jesus. But the benefits of following Jesus and obeying what he teaches will far outlast the pain. Paul reminds us, “Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory. I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:17-18).

Use your talents, time, treasure, and influence for God’s purposes, and you’ll be rewarded for those choices both now and in eternity. Paul says we’ll be rewarded in Heaven for what Jesus did: “We will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him.”

Think about it. If you change your thinking from the clutter of the day to the rest of Heaven, what is really important in life? I believe you will find a lot of things not as important as we make them, and that where eternity is concerned it is the things of spiritual value both now and in the world to come that are important.

Jim