THE BEST WAY TO LIVE OUR LIFE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY AUGUST 18, 2023:

SUBJECT: THE BEST WAY TO LIVE OUR LIFE! 

Memory verse: "He who finds his life will lose it, and He who loses his life will find it.” (Matthew 10 vs 39.)

READ: Matthew 16 vs 24 - 26:

16:24: Then said Jesus to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

16:25: For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

16:26: For what profit is it to a man if he if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

INTIMATION:

The best way to live our life is to cling to Jesus instead of this worldly life; pledging our whole existence to His service which is our real purpose of life. Clinging to the worldly life may cause you to forfeit the best from Christ in this world and in the next. Adhering to this life is loving this life’s rewards (leisure, power, popularity, financial security, etc.) at the expense of your commitment to Christ, and what He desires of you. 

The rewards of this life is really empty compared to what Christ offers. The best way to live our life, therefore, is to loosen our greedy grip on earthly rewards so that we can be free to follow Christ. In doing so, we will inherit eternal life and begin at once to experience the benefits of following Christ. 

When we don’t know Christ, we make choices as though there were no afterlife. In reality, this life is just the introduction to eternity. How we live this brief span determines our eternal state. What we accumulate on earth has no value in gaining eternal life. Even the highest social or civic honors cannot earn us entrance into heaven. 

Jesus wants us to choose to follow Him rather than to lead a life of sin and self-satisfaction. He wants us to stop trying to control our own destiny and to let Him direct us. This makes good sense because, as the Creator, Christ knows better than we do what real life is about. He asks for submission, not self-hatred; He asks us only to lose our self-centered determination to be in charge.

Many people spend all their energy seeking pleasure. Jesus said, however, that worldliness, which is centered on possessions, position, or power, is ultimately worthless. Whatever you have on earth is only temporary; it cannot be exchanged for your soul. If you work hard at getting what you want, you might eventually have a pleasurable life, but in the end you will find it hollow, empty, and all is vanity (Ecclesiastes 12 vs 8). Therefore, make the pursuit of God more important than the selfish pursuit. Follow Jesus, and you will know what it means to live abundantly now and to have eternal life as well. And that is the best way to live.

If this present life is most important to you, you will do everything you can to protect it. You will not want to do anything that might endanger your safety, health, or comfort. By contrast, if following Jesus is most important, you may find yourself in unsafe, unhealthy, and uncomfortable places. You may risk death, but you will not fear it because you know that Jesus will raise you to eternal life. Nothing material can compensate for the loss of eternal life in Christ. Do not use your life on earth merely to please yourself, rather you should spend your life serving God and others.

Those who control the lust of the flesh in this life will enjoy the abundance of life. Those who have committed themselves to Jesus will not only receive the abundant life in this life, they will also receive eternal life in the new heavens and earth to come. It is senseless to profit that which is of this life at the expense of that which is beyond this life. It is senseless because no man with the goods of this world can make an exchange for the heaven that is to come. 

If any would seek first the satisfaction of earthly desires in order not to glorify God in this life, he would perish eternally. If one does not give his or her life to Jesus, then he will not receive the which will preserve his life into eternity with Christ.

Prayer: Abba Father, by You all things consist. My utmost heart desire is to live and move and have my being in Christ. Give me the grace to do all things in consonance to Your precepts, that I may be found worthy of Your crown of glory, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!