Good Morning Champion
Let's spend our lives on what is essential, not just important.
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NKJV) And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Here is a very short yet very profound little statement, and over the last few weeks this verse has really gotten into my heart and my life and turned it upside down in a positive way. My prayer is that it will do the same to you.
So often we can all be involved in so many things that seem so important, but we need to make sure we are busy with the things that are essential. What makes something essential and not just important is this: "does it matter to God"? We hear in this verse the Apostle Paul underline for the Church what is essential from the viewpoint of God concerning our lives and what we spend it doing.
Look at how he introduces these three essential life coordinates, "And now abide." He does not mention law because that had now been dealt with by the perfect work of Jesus. Neither does he mention a whole bunch of other church "stuff" that we often may deem important. No, just these three things:
Faith, Hope and Love.
I like the way it is put in the following translation:
1 Corinthians 13:13 (New Century Version) So these three things continue forever: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
I don't know about you, but I want to spend the currency of my days on things that will continue forever and not just last a moment, and by forever that does not just mean this life we know now, but all of eternity. You see the things we do that involve or are the product of faith, hope, and love will remain while other things that seemed important at the time will, like straw, be burnt away and never mentioned in eternity.
I don't want to stand in Heaven one day and watch as a whole bunch of stuff I spent my life building disappears in a moment because they were actually just important but not essential. I hope this thought stirs you Champion like it is stirring me. It causes me to look at what I am doing and ask myself this, "Am I busying myself with things involving faith, hope, and love"? If not, it's time to get busy with them again because without them I am not giving God anything to be excited about.
Hey, let's talk some more tomorrow.
Bless you,
Andy
