Living intentionally for eternity
is about viewing everything, certainly every life experience, from the context
of eternity—as in, how each and every event will be reviewed—in what light—when
we grace the courts of heaven? More and more, consequentially, the way we live
life is influenced by this perspective.
It is about living for truth,
upholding justice, and investing in love.
It is seeing life from a
post-physical-death viewpoint; doing what we do now with the very end in mind.
Importantly, it is not viewing
life fearfully for judgment.
This is one of the barriers we
need to overcome; worry for judgment. We know we do bad things. How will God
view them? At this point we must be reminded, if we are saved, that we have already been forgiven. Grace covers all our sin;
past, present, and future. Therefore, we do not tread with fear when
approaching heaven. We should not fear judgment. But in the same way we should
live for truth.
As we operate from this
perspective we are employing wisdom, for we take counsel from God with the aim
of living for him. The more we can shift our motives in viewing life from this
perspective the less psychological indifference we will suffer.
Living intentionally for eternity has
impact on how we handle:
Truth and Lies – we have additional reasons, and maybe the ultimate reason, to
side with truth. Truth and lies play themselves out in our relationships. There
is no benefit in siding with non-truth. And if there is no benefit in siding
with non-truth in this life, we can taste even a little of the gravity of
siding with non-truth for eternity. Whilst we shouldn’t fear judgment, we will
face only truth in eternity—the inflow of God’s perfect justice.
Justice and Injustice – flowing on from truth, because truth informs equity and
fairness, justice is another chief test. We learn a lot about God’s thoughts on
justice and injustice through reading Proverbs. God loves justice and hates
injustice, and we are to be the same, advocating social justice issues and
fighting the good fight of faith upon areas of injustice.
Love and Fear – we, as normal human beings, experience both in copious
quantities. Rare it is that people would experience no love, but sadly it still
happens all too often. A human being not loved is a horrible travesty in a
world God created. Yet we are vessels for love, and we contain the material and
the motive to love. Still again, we are bitten by fear and our own sense for
rejection. At many levels fear spurns love; it spoils our experience of life.
Yet some fear is good—it warns us of danger. If we are heading to eternity, and
there’s nothing more certain, our fear should convert into an awed respect for
God and life.
***
Life is a one-day-at-a-time
adventure, mystery and challenge. We can be sure that life leads to death and,
therefore, eternity. Living intentionally for eternity is about planning for
that eventuality and living life accordingly.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
2 comments:
This is very powerful teaching. I especially like the paragraph around justice - such a vital part of the Gospel message the world needs to hear more and more, and every Christian pilgrim needs constantly being reminded of. It's so easy to forget Jesus' central message of justice in this chaotic world. We all need it.
Thank you, Br Graham-Michoel, for your feedback. You are right, we do need to be constantly reminded. We are too easily hemmed-in to the human condition. The three tenets of early Proverbs - righteousness, justice, and equity - so important.
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