Do You Want God’s Best?

 

Photo by Horia Varlan 2008

Do you want God’s best that He has planned for you, or do you settle for what you think is best?

As we grow from babes in Christ to mature Christians through daily Bible study and prayer (Acts 17:10-11), joining a church (Hebrews 10:25), and getting involved in regular service, we may fall into the trap of thinking we’ve mastered our role in Christ, or at least that we have a good handle on it. We may fall into the routine of a “spiritual checklist,” mentally giving ourselves a gold star for sticking to our Scripture reading schedule, church attendance, and ministry opportunities.

In our flesh, we may have shaped our behavior to the point that we can at a moment’s notice put on our Sunday face, give appropriate words of encouragement and perhaps Scripture verses, and even prepare a lesson or write a blog post. But have we forgotten that without Him, we can do nothing? (John 15:5) Do we decide on a plan of action for our Christian service and ask Him to bless it after the fact, or do we pray first about seeking His will?

The apostle Paul clearly had a sincere desire to follow God’s plan for His life (Acts 9:6,18,20), which he understood was to preach the Gospel of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only way to Heaven (John 14:6). Jesus Himself had revealed to Paul the mystery that he was now to spread this message to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews (Romans 16:25-26). Paul was prepared to endure great hardships and suffering to fulfill that mission (2 Corinthians 11:25-27).

God was clear in His directive; and Paul was obedient, faithful and sincere in following it. So I imagine that Paul may have felt frustrated when God seemed to be blocking Paul’s plan to carry out his mission. He and his fellow missionaries had started churches in Phrygia and Galatia, and these were starting to grow. He then intended to preach in Asia, but he was “forbidden” by the Holy Spirit. So they tried to take God’s message to Bithynia, but once again the Holy Spirit did not allow it (Acts 16: 5-7).

Why? God knows everything, past, present, and future, including things we can’t possibly know (Psalm 139:1-18). He sees the whole picture unfolding in the context of time, while we only see a single puzzle piece, and often from the wrong side, at that. God always knows best, and going to Asia at that time was not part of God’s plan for the early Christian missionaries.

Paul was practically God’s right-hand man on earth, at least at that point in church history, and yet God still revealed information to him only on a “need-to-know” basis. It reminds me of Abraham, taking the first step of faith, and then the next, without even knowing where God was leading him (Genesis 12:1-4). But Abraham was a pagan with no track record (Genesis 11), and Paul had a long pedigree of the best ancestry, religious education, and fervent zeal to serve God, albeit misdirected until he saw Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 22:3-10).

Nonetheless, God did not spell out all the details of His plan for Paul’s ministry. We may grow impatient when we don’t understand the overall picture of where and how God is leading us. But if He showed us the whole plan at once, one of two things would happen.

Either we would back away terrified at the enormity of the plan, realizing correctly that in our flesh we could not accomplish it, but forgetting that with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; 2 Corinthians 12:9). Or we would be filled with pride that God chose us for such an awesome plan, again forgetting that it is all about His glory, not ours (Acts 12:23).

He strengthens our faith by ensuring our reliance on Him each step of the way. He gets the glory by choosing those who have no hope, by earthly standards, of accomplishing the plan. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit within every child of God guides us to want what God wants for our life, and to actually do His will, for our good and His glory (Philippians 2:13).

With His perfect timing, God sent Paul a vision of a Macedonian man asking for Paul’s help (Acts 16:9). God often used visions and dreams in Bible history to direct His children, and He still may, if we take the time to seek stillness in His presence. When testing these visions, we can rest assured that God would never contradict His Word, so that a “vision” commanding us to sin cannot be of God.

From this vision Paul understood correctly that God wanted him to set sail immediately for Macedonia, which he did (Acts 16:10). How often do we clearly understand what God is asking us to do, yet we delay in following Him? Sadly, delayed obedience is the same as disobedience (Psalm 119:60). If a parent asks their teen to take out the trash, and they obey – three days later – can we say they honored their parent’s command?

Because of Paul’s willingness to follow God’s plan and his immediate obedience, God promptly found him passage and gave him a straight course to the appointed country across the sea (Acts 16:11). If we trust in God completely rather than in ourselves, and acknowledge God in all our doings, and not just in what we consider to be most important, He will direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).

By worldly standards, Paul’s arrival in Philippi (Acts 16:12), the chief city of Macedonia, looked like a mistake. But God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9).

Paul’s usual practice was to find a synagogue and ask the faithful Jews if he could tell them about the Messiah (Acts 17:1-3,10). But Philippi had no synagogue, meaning that there were not even ten Jewish men living there, which was the minimum number needed to start a synagogue. God led Paul to the river, where people sometimes gathered to worship so that they could use the water in their cleansing rituals.

There Paul found a group of faithful women praying (Acts 16:13), which emphasizes the role that women have had since the early Church Age of gathering together as prayer warriors (James 5:16), to study the Scriptures to faithfully teach their children (2 Timothy 1:5), to encourage one another by sharing their joys and burdens, and to serve and support fellow believers (Galatians 6:2).

Among these women at the river was Lydia, a well-to-do business woman who was a seller of purple cloth, available only to wealthy buyers because of the large numbers of a special, small shellfish needed to concentrate the purple fluid used as a dye. She already believed in God (Acts 16:14), as so many people claim to even in our present world.

But sadly, believing in God is not enough to be saved, for even the demons believe in God and tremble (James 2:19). Salvation requires faith that Jesus Christ is God and God’s Son, Who came to earth in human form as the perfect, sinless sacrifice to pay for all our sins, to reconcile sinful man to Holy God (John 1:29; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Hebrews 2:17). Only when we are born again (John 3:3-7; 1 Peter 1:23) by believing this, turning from our sins, and asking Jesus to be our personal Lord and Savior can we receive God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

Faith comes only by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17), which Paul preached to Lydia and the others. When she was saved by believing the Gospel, she evidently led her household to Christ, for they were all baptized (Acts 16:14-15), not for salvation but as an act of obedience. Often one person being born again leads to salvation of the whole family, even though each family member must make a personal decision for Christ.

Lydia offered her time, talent and treasure to Christ, opening her home to shelter the missionaries for as long as they needed and to hold worship meetings (Acts 16:15, 40). Through her efforts and those of Paul’s other converts, the church at Philippi became a prominent center of Christian ministry and evangelism.

God used Paul at Philippi to show His awesome power in casting out demons (Acts 16:16-18); showing that joy in the Lord allows His children to sing His praises even after being whipped and then imprisoned (v. 23-25); and in freeing His children from jail by sending a great earthquake. Even better, this gave Paul and Silas the opportunity to preach to the jailer, who accepted Christ, as did his family (v. 27-34)

The book of Philippians, Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, is crucial to the Christian’s understanding of joy in the Lord, and of how we can rejoice always (Philippians 4:4) knowing that we have abundant, eternal life in Him (John 3:16; 10:10), no matter what our earthly circumstances. Paul himself wrote this joyful epistle from the gloom of a prison cell!

Had Paul not trusted God’s direction, paid attention to the vision God sent him, and obeyed God immediately in changing his destination from Asia to Macedonia, none of these blessings may have come to pass.  What we perceive in our limited understanding to be good may not be God’s best. We must believe that God knows what we need before we ask Him and that He wants to give us His best (Matthew 6:8; 7:11).

If we delight in Him, He will give us our heart’s desires (Psalm 37:4). This doesn’t mean that we’ll win the lottery just because we’re saved! But it does mean that as we become more like Christ, we want to submit to His will (Luke 22:42) and to fulfill God’s perfect plan for our life, which is the best blessing we could possibly have (Jeremiah 29:11; 33:3). He answers our prayers “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

Charles Stanley tells the story of desperately needing a car in his early days as a pastor. He prayed about it, searched diligently for a used car, and finally found one he could afford. He thought it was a good deal and would serve him well, but he did not have a real sense of peace about it. As he sat in the car dealer’s office and was about to sign the papers, he had a clear perception of God saying, “Do you want this, or do you want my best?”

So he got up from the table, apologized to the dealer, and told him he could try to explain why he had such a sudden change of heart, but that the car dealer might have a hard time believing him! Charles Stanley decided to put off his car search for a while. Three days later a wealthy member of the congregation gave him a free gift of a brand new, high-end car! 

Instead of deciding on our own what we’re going to do, and then asking God to bless our plans, may we pray to Him first, listen for His still, small voice, and immediately follow His guidance!

© 2015 Laurie Collett

Reposted from the archives

Unlikely, Unexpected Ministry

 

Photo by Rolf Dietrich Brecher 2014

I had a dream in which a dear lady from church entered Hospice care. It was a small place, with only one visitor per patient at a time. Her family all had to go together to attend to an urgent matter, so they asked me to stay with her.

She is in pain, but as I pray with her, she starts to relax and falls asleep. Her husband returns soon thereafter and I leave so that he can stay with her. Outside it’s dark, and I have no car, phone or money with me. As I walk away from the hospice facility toward home, the road becomes pitch black. I can’t even see my hand in front of my face and am frightened of getting lost or attacked.

Way off in the distance, in the middle of nowhere, I see an Outback chain restaurant, lit up, with nothing around it. I decide to go in to get my bearings and be in a place of safety. The restaurant is noisy and crowded, and aromas from the kitchen make me realize I’m hungry, but I have no way to pay for the food.

A man who used to attend our former church comes up to me and I see that he’s sitting with some members from that church. He says the church would like to pay for my dinner. I thank him and tell him that’s not necessary, but he insists, saying, “You have to eat, because you have a long night ahead of you.”

He explains that he has a message to deliver to me. There is a chronic care facility further up the road that would like me to visit and pray with the patients one-on-one. I agree to go, and again find myself walking in the dark with no landmarks other than the restaurant getting smaller and dimmer the further away I get.

Finally I spot a well-lit building, with a sign saying it is a chronic care facility. When I get there, many hospital staff are busy around the nurses’ station. I introduce myself to one of the nurses and tell her why I’m there. She says that I’m needed in the operating room, where one of the surgeons has asked for me.

I go there and he explains that he needs me to give a patient a spinal injection of stem cells. I protest, saying that I’m not qualified, that it’s been years since I even did a spinal tap, and that I have never given a spinal injection. He says it will rejuvenate the patient’s spinal cord and allow him to walk again. He hands me a large metal contraption holding a very large needle and syringe full of clear fluid.

I awake with mixed emotions – wanting to help the patient by letting God use me for a miracle of healing, but fear that I could injure him, and regret over being rusty in my medical skills. And yet the dream gave me hope that God could use me in unexpected ways, thankfulness that He has not placed me on the shelf (1 Corinthians 9:27), and that He guides me and provides for me in the opportunities He gives.

When trying to interpret the dream, I realized that the ministry doors God opened (1 Corinthians 16:9; 2 Corinthians 2:12) were unexpected and outside my comfort zone. On our way home to Heaven, to eternal life with Jesus Christ, the path may sometimes be dark, and how we serve Him may take unexpected turns, at least from our perspective.

Despite my medical training and profession, I have never felt led to minister by visiting and praying with those in the hospital, although I have provided informal counsel to those who ask me about various aspects of their medical care or conditions, and I pray daily for family, church family, friends and acquaintances who are ill or going through other special trials. However, I greatly respect others who have chosen this highly valued ministry. Visiting someone in the hospital is as if we have visited Christ Himself (Matthew 25:34-40), and the prayer of faith shall save the sick (James 5:15).

Nor have I ever felt led to use my training or profession to go on a medical mission, and I have been retired from clinical practice for so long that I doubt it would even be possible. But nothing is too difficult for God! (Isaiah 59:1).

As the saying goes, “God looks not for ability but for availability.” When He uses an unlikely subject to accomplish an unexpected ministry, God gets all the glory, for that person could not have done it in His own strength. Once we are saved by trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6), God empowers us to learn, follow and do His will through His Holy Spirit living in our hearts (2 Corinthians 1:22).

Lately my prayer has been, “Father, please use me in whatever way you see fit.”  I am blessed that God has called me to sing to His glory, including Christian lyrics I have written, and to teach His Word, both of which seem unlikely and unexpected in my own ability, as I grew up challenged by an often severe stuttering problem.

I began writing this blog on Memorial Day weekend 11 years ago, after seeing the movie “Julie and Julia” in which the heroine decides to test one of Julia Child’s recipes daily and write a blog post about it. An unlikely inspiration for a Christian blog, and unexpected that God would allow me to continue it to the present day!

My husband and I are blessed that He continues to use us in a physically challenging form of dance ministry, which is unlikely and unexpected given our age and my husband’s battle with cancer.

Yet looking back, we can see God’s provision and preparation in our lives for these ministries long before we were even saved! He gave me a love of music, poetry, dance and song, and a home where these gifts would be encouraged. I attended a school where we had writing assignments every day, and continuing to write medical articles after retiring from clinical practice no doubt helped with the discipline of writing a weekly blog.

God brought my husband and me together through a series of “coincidences” defying all probability, and He strengthened our marriage even when others thought the unexpected partnership was unlikely to succeed, given differences in our upbringing and backgrounds. We danced together at our first meeting and loved it, giving us motivation to hone our dance skills for years before we were saved and devoted this gift to Him.

I don’t believe that God has called me through this dream to shift gears and abandon the ministries He has so graciously appointed to us. However, sometimes He does ask His children to set a different course, even when a current ministry seems to be fruitful. For example, we are blessed to know a missionary leader who followed God’s call to resign as Pastor from a growing church he had planted, and to become the full-time founding director of a missionary organization that has trained and supported indigenous pastors all over the globe.

Thank God that no matter what form our primary ministry takes, no matter where we are, and no matter what physical or financial limitations we may have, we can and should pray for souls to be saved, and lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ in prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17), interceding for them as we come boldly to His throne of grace! (Hebrews 4:16).

I believe God is showing me that He is my Commander, Provider and Guide in all that He has set forth for me to do. In the dream, He gave various assignments, which I could complete only with His help. Without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5), but with Him, all things are possible!  (Matthew 19:26).

When the path was dark, He supernaturally led me to the next destination (Psalm 119:105). When I didn’t know where I was going, He illuminated the buildings where I had divine appointments and communicated with me through His children. When I was hungry, He fed me (Psalm 37:25), using brothers and sisters in Christ to do so, as we are to build up and help one another, bearing one another’s burdens and fulfilling His law (Galatians 6:2).

The restaurant being an Outback restaurant I believe is a reference to the Australian Outback, which Wikipedia describes as “a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia.… more remote than the bush.” It reminds me that sometimes God’s calling on the lives of His children is to spread His Word across the globe, to the most desolate places, and yet that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), for He is with us wherever we go (Psalm 139:7).

Had I taken the leap of faith in the dream and administered the spinal injection, I believe He would have guided my hands and used the surgeon who asked for my help to instruct me in the proper technique, to perform a healing miracle, allowing the lame to walk (Matthew 11:5) through His power and grace! What a blessing when God uses us to accomplish His perfect will! And yet, what regret and loss we will experience if we learn at the Judgment Seat that we failed to walk through ministry doors He opened (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).

May we all let God use us as He sees fit, even if it is in an unlikely and unexpected ministry that takes us far from our comfort zone! May we be blessed in knowing that God sees our labor and will reward us richly!

© 2023 Laurie Collett

This Moment, or All Eternity?

 

Photo be Maxime Raynal 2015

Tonight, we who live in the Eastern United States set our clocks forward 1 hour, transitioning from Eastern Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time. Many feel that this time change should be permament, rather than setting our clocks back in the fall, and this is under debate in the legislature.

Time is also in the forefront of the news as many potential catastrophes -- nuclear, climate, economic, and disease-related, loom on the horizon. All this has led experts to declare that we are now at 90 seconds before midnight on the Doomsday Clock -- meaning total world annihilation -- closer than we have ever been since that clock began ticking in 1947. This should not come as a shock to Christians who have read Matthew 24, where Jesus enumerated all the signs that will precede the end of the age, when Jesus will return for His children. A mere glance at the headlines confirms these signs increasing in frequency and severity, much like labor pains, heralding this dramatic event.

But ultimately, whether or not Jesus tarries, only two time points matter for the Christian -- right now, and all eternity. I therefore thought it would be fitting to repost the article below. 

We tend to think of reality as the sum of our physical existence, past experiences, and future plans. In humanistic and philosophical terms, this is reasonable, for we are to a large extent shaped by our past experiences. Educators speak of “nurture plus nature,” or how our environment and genetics interact to predict our behavior, health, achievement, success, and a variety of other outcomes. And, as the saying goes, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

And there is no denying that our future plans have a dramatic effect on our present actions. Our goals influence what studies, training, and work opportunities we are likely to pursue, and even what relationships we are likely to seek. Our anticipation of what lies in store, whether good or bad, greatly affects how we spend our time and resources in the present. 

Announcements of life-changing events in the near future have a profound impact on our priorities, whether we learn that we are about to have a grandchild or that we are likely to die in six months from a terminal illness.

But as born-again Christians (John 3:3-8) who have placed our faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6), there are truly only two realities in the time spectrum: this very moment, and all of eternity. And the same goes for all of us, saved or unsaved.

The past is not something we can change nor a place we can inhabit. We can get caught up in memories of good times or guilt-ridden over prior mistakes, but we can only change their impact in the present moment by adjusting our emotional response and asking God to release their hold on our life through His peace (Philippians 4:7; Isaiah 26:3). Once we are in Christ, we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), and His compassions are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).

If we are in Christian or other service, we cannot rest on our laurels and point to how we used to serve God in the past. In theatre, the adage is that you’re only as good as your last performance. Conversely, our faith in the shed blood of Christ has removed us from our sins (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10) as far as the East is removed from the West (Psalm 103:12). If He has forgotten our transgressions once we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ (Isaiah 61:10), why should we dwell in them? It is a lie of the devil (John 8:44) to confront us with past sins and convince us that we are therefore of no use to God and His kingdom.

The future should have no more hold on us than should the past. How many people stop enjoying the present, refusing to take vacations or to spend more time with their family now because they are working to secure their retirement and enjoy these experiences then? But sadly, they often find that an unexpected illness or loss of a loved one deprives them of fulfilling that dream.

In the Scripture example of the wealthy man who planned to build more barns to hoard his accumulated possessions, so that he could live comfortably for many years, Jesus called him a fool for not realizing that he would lose his life and his soul the very same night (Luke 12:16-20). James warns us that our life is but a vapor, vanishing like the exhaled breath before our face on a cold day, and that what happens tomorrow depends totally on the will of God (James 4:14-15) and not on our own plans (Proverbs 16:9).

In contrast, many worry about future threats at the expense of enjoying the present. The world is increasingly overflowing with chaos, confusion, persecution, natural disasters, wars, and rumors of wars, as Jesus warned us would happen as we draw closer to the End Times (Matthew 24:3-14). Perhaps we are living under a Damocles’ sword of potentially bad news with our next doctor’s appointment, bank statement, or work memo.

But Jesus said that worry accomplishes nothing. In fact, it is actually a sin because it demonstrates our lack of trust that God is working all things together for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus told us not to fret over our physical needs such as food or clothing, for he will provide all these if we seek Him first (Luke 12:22-32; Matthew 6:25-33), and He knows what we need before we even ask Him (Matthew 6:8).

As our former pastor used to say, “Yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery; today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” For each of us, the only reality along the continuum of time is the present moment. We can’t relive the past, and we are not promised tomorrow, or even our next breath (James 4:14-15). All could change in an instant, as it did for Job despite his exemplary obedience to God (Job 1).

But praise God, we do have this very moment to honor, glorify and commune with Him! In all that we do, let us do it heartily, as unto the Lord! (Colossians 3:23). Let us redeem the time, for the days are evil (Colossians 4:5; Ephesians 5:16). Let us give thanks in all things, for this is the will of Christ Jesus concerning us. Let us pray without ceasing by making our life a living prayer, being constantly attuned to God’s will (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24).

For those who have not yet trusted Jesus Christ, today is the day of salvation! Put it off no longer, for even moments from now may be too late! (2 Corinthians 6:2).

But in addition to the reality of this present moment, we must face the reality of all eternity. God’s Word and man’s soul are eternal (1 John 2:17). Those who trust Christ will spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus Christ and their loved ones in Him (John 3:16; Luke 18:30; 1 Corinthians 15:22-57); those who reject Christ face eternal damnation and torment in hell (Mark 3:29; 9:43-48). Time as we now know it will have no meaning, for time will be no more.

For God, eternity stretches back infinitely and reaches forward infinitely (Revelation 1:8), yet “back” and “forward” are not appropriate terms once we are removed from the timeline as we now know it. Time will stand still rather than marching on. Before time began, God designed each of us to be His unique workmanship, to fulfill His specific purpose (2 Timothy 1:9). He knew and knows all things, including who would accept and who would reject His freely given gift of salvation (Ephesians 1:3-7; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 8:29-30).

And once Jesus returns for us at the Rapture, earthly time will cease for each of His children. We shall live forever with Him and each other in glorified bodies that will never age, sin, or experience sickness, sorrow or pain (1 Corinthians 15:22-57). In the meantime, may we live in the reality of this present moment – our only opportunity to fulfill His will for our life – and in the reality of all eternity.

God had a plan for each of us since eternity past. Knowing that we will spend eternity future with Him, may we use each moment to store up treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-20) and to bring others with us!

© 2018 Laurie Collett

Reposted from the archives

This Moment, or All Eternity

Photo be Maxime Raynal 2015

We tend to think of reality as the sum of our physical existence, past experiences, and future plans. In humanistic and philosophical terms, this is reasonable, for we are to a large extent shaped by our past experiences. Educators speak of “nurture plus nature,” or how our environment and genetics interact to predict our behavior, health, achievement, success, and a variety of other outcomes. And, as the saying goes, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

And there is no denying that our future plans have a dramatic effect on our present actions. Our goals influence what studies, training, and work opportunities we are likely to pursue, and even what relationships we are likely to seek. Our anticipation of what lies in store, whether good or bad, greatly affects how we spend our time and resources in the present. 

Announcements of life-changing events in the near future have a profound impact on our priorities, whether we learn that we are about to have a grandchild or that we are likely to die in six months from a terminal illness.

But as born-again Christians (John 3:3-8) who have placed our faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6), there are truly only two realities in the time spectrum: this very moment, and all of eternity. And the same goes for all of us, saved or unsaved.

The past is not something we can change nor a place we can inhabit. We can get caught up in memories of good times or guilt-ridden over prior mistakes, but we can only change their impact in the present moment by adjusting our emotional response and asking God to release their hold on our life through His peace (Philippians 4:7; Isaiah 26:3). Once we are in Christ, we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), and His compassions are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).

If we are in Christian or other service, we cannot rest on our laurels and point to how we used to serve God in the past. In theatre, the adage is that you’re only as good as your last performance. Conversely, our faith in the shed blood of Christ has removed us from our sins (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10) as far as the East is removed from the West (Psalm 103:12). If He has forgotten our transgressions once we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ (Isaiah 61:10), why should we dwell in them? It is a lie of the devil (John 8:44) to confront us with past sins and convince us that we are therefore of no use to God and His kingdom.

The future should have no more hold on us than should the past. How many people stop enjoying the present, refusing to take vacations or to spend more time with their family now because they are working to secure their retirement and enjoy these experiences then? But sadly, they often find that an unexpected illness or loss of a loved one deprives them of fulfilling that dream.

In the Scripture example of the wealthy man who planned to build more barns to hoard his accumulated possessions, so that he could live comfortably for many years, Jesus called him a fool for not realizing that he would lose his life and his soul the very same night (Luke 12:16-20). James warns us that our life is but a vapor, vanishing like the exhaled breath before our face on a cold day, and that what happens tomorrow depends totally on the will of God (James 4:14-15) and not on our own plans (Proverbs 16:9).

In contrast, many worry about future threats at the expense of enjoying the present. The world is increasingly overflowing with chaos, confusion, persecution, natural disasters, wars, and rumors of wars, as Jesus warned us would happen as we draw closer to the End Times (Matthew 24:3-14). Perhaps we are living under a Damocles’sword of potentially bad news with our next doctor’s appointment, bank statement, or work memo.

But Jesus said that worry accomplishes nothing. In fact, it is actually a sin because it demonstrates our lack of trust that God is working all things together for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus told us not to fret over our physical needs such as food or clothing, for he will provide all these if we seek Him first (Luke 12:22-32; Matthew 6:25-33), and He knows what we need before we even ask Him (Matthew 6:8).

As our former pastor used to say, “Yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery; today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” For each of us, the only reality along the continuum of time is the present moment. We can’t relive the past, and we are not promised tomorrow, or even our next breath (James 4:14-15). All could change in an instant, as it did for Job despite his exemplary obedience to God (Job 1).

But praise God, we do have this very moment to honor, glorify and commune with Him! In all that we do, let us do it heartily, as unto the Lord! (Colossians 3:23). Let us redeem the time, for the days are evil (Colossians 4:5; Ephesians 5:16). Let us give thanks in all things, for this is the will of Christ Jesus concerning us. Let us pray without ceasing by making our life a living prayer, being constantly attuned to God’s will (1 Thessalonians 5:16-24).

For those who have not yet trusted Jesus Christ, today is the day of salvation! Put it off no longer, for even moments from now may be too late! (2 Corinthians 6:2).

But in addition to the reality of this present moment, we must face the reality of all eternity. God’s Word and man’s soul are eternal (1 John 2:17). Those who trust Christ will spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus Christ and their loved ones in Him (John 3:16; Luke 18:30; 1 Corinthians 15:22-57); those who reject Christ face eternal damnation and torment in hell (Mark 3:29; 9:43-48). Time as we now know it will have no meaning, for time will be no more.

For God, eternity stretches back infinitely and reaches forward infinitely (Revelation 1:8), yet “back” and “forward” are not appropriate terms once we are removed from the timeline as we now know it. Time will stand still rather than marching on. Before time began, God designed each of us to be His unique workmanship, to fulfill His specific purpose (2 Timothy 1:9). He knew and knows all things, including who would accept and who would reject His freely given gift of salvation (Ephesians 1:3-7; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 8:29-30).

And once Jesus returns for us at the Rapture, earthly time will cease for each of His children. We shall live forever with Him and each other in glorified bodies that will never age, sin, or experience sickness, sorrow or pain (1 Corinthians 15:22-57). In the meantime, may we live in the reality of this present moment – our only opportunity to fulfill His will for our life – and in the reality of all eternity.

God had a plan for each of us since eternity past. Knowing that we will spend eternity future with Him, may we use each moment to store up treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-20) and to bring others with us!

© 2018 Laurie Collett