It's not this life that you should be concerned about, but the next.

Ray Pompa

 

James 4:14 "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away".

 

Get that amazing education, the house of your dreams, a nice expensive car along with your 6 or 7 figure income. By the time you are 35, maybe 45 or 55 years old you might attain it. Or you could struggle all your life, get into drugs and alcohol; maybe an abusive relationship or just remain homeless all your life.

 

Either way both of these scenarios have one thing in common. You're going to Die. At the end of your hard struggle for success or failure, you might live another 30 years to enjoy it or regret it; Then you die.

 

I read an article recently about a Christian band member who decided that he didn't believe in God anymore. He is 36 years old. I find that funny because in a universe that science says is about 14 billion years old and a God that he believed in is eternal; (an amount of time that we can never comprehend) he just decided by the time he was 36 years old that God doesn't exist any more. Let that sink in.

What ever struggles you have in your mind or in your body doesn't matter. The end will always be the same. Hebrews 9:27 "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"

Eternity is a long time. Jesus makes it clear about the seriousness of our decisions in life. Yes, he will make our life more abundant through him, and that doesn't mean you won't go through life without trials, but what ever the circumstances nothing compares to what awaits us for eternity compared to the short lifespan here on earth.

Matthew 5:29-30  "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."

But the upside is 1 Corinthians 2:9 "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

 

Like a parent that trains their child to get past the age of accountability and that critical point where they can fend for themselves and live to the fullness of their life, God wants to train us up as his children and heirs to his kingdom to be with him for eternity. Thats what God wants for you. So you see God who sees the beginning from the end, and who a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day doesn't view your life in the sense of a few dozen years, BUT FOR AN ETERNITY.

Philippians 3:14 "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Hebrews 12:1 - Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 - Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.