Investing in What Will Endure
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” 2 Peter 1:4
This is a great teaching on how we view our relationship to the world. I really appreciated the insights that Dr. Glyn Evans shares in his daily devotional, Daily with the King:
The disciple of Christ must eventually come to terms with the world. By “coming to terms” I do not mean compromise; I mean a way of dealing with it.
First I must recognize what the world is; and then I must learn how to conquer it. What the worlds IS can best be described by defining what is NOT, it is “not from the Father” (1 John 2:16). The world’s basic motives, instincts, and attitudes do not originate from God. The world’s BEHAVIOR, therefore, cannot be of God. If I have been born again into the family of God, I should not be surprised to find that this world is “no friend to grace.”
As to conquering the world I must remember that “the world and its desires pass away (1 John 2:17). That non-durability is a characteristic of the world. Many aspects of the world are sinful and temporary, but many other aspects are good and temporary. The only way I can conquer the world is to invest myself in something that will endure.
The “eternal life” of the Bible is more than endless existence; it is qualitative existence as well. To have eternal life is to “know … God” (John 17:3). But to know God in the Bible sense is to be personally acquainted with His qualities such as love, mercy, and righteousness. Those are qualities that have NO limit, not ends.
To say that I own three houses means that one day I shall have to leave them; but to say I am filled with the love of God means that I have something that will last forever.
The Bible urges me on to possess that which I cannot leave or lose. The biblical “fool” is always the man who sacrifices the “far off” for the near at hand. Wow! The opposite is shining victory. “To him who overcomes [the world], I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of Paradise.” Revelation 2:7
Wow – I don’t want to be a “biblical fool” that is willing to sacrifice the “far off” for the near at hand. That is certainly something to think about today. – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick
Compass Pointers: Some Christians seem to think that all the requirements of a holy life are met when they are very active in successful Christian work. And because they do so much for the Lord in public they feel a liberty to be cross and ugly and un-Christ like in private. This is not the sort of Christian life I am depicting. If we are to walk as Christ walked, we must be in private as well as in public, at home, as well as abroad. It must be every hour, all day long, and not as stated points or certain fixed occasions.
Hannah Whitall Smith
Anchored to the Rock: EVERYTHING we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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