What encourages you to live for the glory of God and the good of others? If your answer is anything less than the encouragement of eternity, you are settling for less than God’s best for you.
C. S. Lewis rightly observed, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.”
The apostle Paul flatly stated:
If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
(1 Corinthians 15:19)
Make no mistake: Paul was NOT implying that non-Christians enjoy a better life on this side of heaven than Christian believers. Even a believer who is passing through the fiery furnace of affliction always has Christ walking by his or her side, no matter how hot the fire gets (see Hebrews 13:5). That sweet presence of the Friend who sticks closer than a brother is what makes the believer’s existence on earth infinitely more rich and full than that of the unbeliever.
Paul’s stark statement in 1 Corinthians 15:9 emphasizes the truth that the best is yet to come. What good is life on this earth without an eternity with Christ attached to the end of it? Paul concisely captured the folly of living for the world instead of the Word: “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ (1 Corinthians 15:32). We are broken people living in a broken world; without the encouragement of eternity, we might well live in utter despair . . . for tomorrow we die and return to the dust.
Only the encouragement of eternity will empower us to keep on keeping on when we would rather not. Scripture commends the faith of Abraham, who, though living in a tent in a land far from his home, “was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10-11).
The letter to the Hebrews exhorts us to think in the same way as our spiritual father Abraham: “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).
God has promised an eternity where there will be no more tears, no pain or sin or death. Every time you recall a portion of your life with pain or regret, it is the promise of eternity you are longing for. When you grieve the loss of a loved one, it is the promise of eternity you are yearning for. When you are disgusted by your own propensity to sin, it is the promise of eternity you are aching for. Every time you lay down your own needs for another—every time you take up your cross and follow Christ, it is the promise of eternity you are banking on.
Even now, God is preparing a special place for just for you. Our Lord has promised it (John 14:2-3). Lay hold of that promise! Look forward to it . . . long for it . . . live your life in the light of it every day! When you do, the encouragement of eternity is powerful enough to rescue you—not only from broken people, places, and things; it will rescue you from you!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 