In this race of life... we get caught up in all the things we think we need. We need more money, we need a better car, we need new shoes, to see the latest movie, to get the newest cell phone or laptop or tablet, to get the trendiest clothes, to have a nicer kitchen, a nicer bedroom, a bigger house, a cup of ice cream! Maybe we don't process those as all the same level of importance at a conscious level, but how many times have you wanted one of the things on this list and felt upset, even "cheated," if you didn't get them? I know I have.
Yet, as you read this, there are children starving to death in countries all over the world who would gladly eat the leftovers in your trashcan. There are people fleeing and dying under the rule of despotic rulers as their homes and livelihoods are burned to the ground. There are women being brutalized who would give anything for one day where they could be certain no one would hurt them. There are men desperately trying to find any sort of work because they have a family depending on them to survive. What those men wouldn't give to have a minimum wage job at any fast food chain in the United States.
I am not writing this to make you ashamed of the blessings God has given you. They are gifts from our Heavenly Father, and we should never feel ashamed of honest gain. But I ask, first of myself but also of you... that we keep these things in perspective. In Matthew 4, Jesus tells the "Parable of the Sower" about a man sowing seeds for harvest. The seeds are the faith of people, and the soil is the type of environment in which the faith lives or dies. In verses 18&19, "Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."
When we focus completely on the things that we desire of this life, we forget that we are living with an eternal perspective, that God has "set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Satan tries to take the things of this life and blind us with them, waving them before our eyes so we can see nothing else, and before long, we are dancing to his tune.
So as you go through life, I encourage you to remember that God has set eternity in your heart, and though the things of this life may seem so crucial and so necessary and so absolutely important...yet Psalm 39:5b(NIV) says, "Each man’s life is but a breath." Rather than be distracted by these things, which though painful last less than a breath, remember this from 2 Corinthians 4:14-18(NIV):
"We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
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