15 Jul 2011
I Thessalonians 2:12
I Thessalonians 2:12: “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.”
This is worth remembering. I think it’s very easy to get caught up in all of life’s problems and lose sight of the fact that all of this is real. There really is life after death, Heaven, the resurrection, everlasting life, and a kingdom to come. These are not fantasies or fairy tales; they’re quite real – every bit as real as the city we’re living in right now. We may live by faith (in fact, we must live by faith) but the things that the Bible tells us to have faith in are absolutely true.
When we lose sight of this we start to lose the ability to make good decisions, for we start thinking in the short term when we should be thinking in the long term. We think about what would make us happy right this instant, instead of things that have eternal value. Sin may look very attractive in the short run, but in the long run it leads to death. Faithlessness may look like it leads to an easy life, but there will be nothing easy about it when we stand before God and give an account of our lives.
The Lord tries our faith; He tests us to see if we are real or not. There is nothing like problems to show what people are truly made of. Faith may be easy when life is good, but when life is hard we begin to find out if our faith was actually real or not. This is not just theoretical – it is quite real.
Patience is so important. As Jesus said, in this world we will have trials – but be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world. Let’s not lose sight of that – or of the very real world that is to come.