Eternal priorities for paper

In our lives as Christians we need to stop and consider often the values we place on things. When we look back at our life from our death bed, what was really important? Would anyone want the words “I should have spent more time at work instead of with the family” engraved on their gravestone? Or driving a brand new car may seem to be important when we view our life as only existing here on this earth, but is it important when we view life as eternal. That is a measure we all should have as we prioritize things in our lives. What is important for our lives as eternal beings, beings that live on after death for eternity?

There is a saying “you take nothing with you to the grave”. Or that song “You never see a u-haul pulled behind a hearse” All the material things of this world do not accompany us to heaven. But saying nothing comes from our lives to eternity is not totally correct. Paul in speaking of what remains after our life here on earth said: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13: 13

Love is a part of the fruit of the Spirit. Since the fruit of the Spirit is described in the singular, that is, it does not say fruits of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit come as single unit or package. So I believe when we enter eternity we bring with us all the fruit of the Spirit that the Spirit has manifested  in our lives. The fruit of the Spirit grows in us as we cooperate with God in the sanctification of our lives. So the fruit of the Spirit is probably the most important asset we have as Christians, since it survives the grave.

Then the righteous acts of Christians, that is good deeds that proceed from faith and love, are symbolically given to Christians to wear at the wedding feast of the Lamb at the end of the age: “For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Revelation 19: 7b, 8

So, yes, Christians do bring to their eternal destiny some things from this life on this earth, and these are things we posses for eternity. Things that some consider most important in this life are only ours for a passing moment compared to eternity.

We pursue so many things of little or no eternal value, to the detriment of what is really important.  Not that we do not need houses and cars and so on, but what is the relative importance we place on these material things compared to eternal things. And that’s why God sent us Jesus to be our Saviour. He knows that we can get our priorities mixed up and can be so easily led astray and follow eternally unimportant things instead of taking up our cross and following Jesus. Out of love for us he came to die for all the times we get our priorities wrong.

One of the reasons we need regular and faithful commitment to church attendance is that here we can make a time for a weekly mini-retreat to a place where the ordinary business of living is set aside to re-focus on what is really important. It is a time to find forgiveness, to celebrate, to give thanks and to hear what God has to say through his Word. This is a time when we can place Jesus and the work he has given us as the one thing that is truly important in our lives. It is a place we can easily cooperate with God as he sanctifies us. It’s so easy to get sidetracked and to get things upside down, giving what seems important in our lives more of our time and energy than it really deserves.

It’s so easy to get caught up in false worldly values and end up regarding Jesus and his love for us as less important than we should. Today we are challenged to put first things first. We are challenged to take another look at what we regard as important and to recognise those things that we have elevated to take the place of the most important of all things, things that last for an eternity.

Blessings