“Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!”
– Psalm 39:5
What King David writes here may not seem cheery to think about, but it’s vital to understand! To human beings, a lifetime certainly feels like a long time, because it’s what we see with our eyes and feel in our bodies. 70 years. 80. 100. It feels like forever because it’s all we know. But compared to eternity, those decades will pass in the blink of an eye! Understanding this truth will set you free. How?
By freeing you from the tyranny of the urgent to invest in the eternal. By freeing you from wasting your life trying to pile up fame, fortune, and accomplishments that will soon be swept away by the sands of time. By helping you understand how to participate in what is eternal through Jesus Christ. The precious invitation of Jesus is to believe in Him and follow Him into eternal life. Through faith in Christ, every believer gains life that will never end.
Though our brief earthly life will inevitably be over in a matter of a few years (unless Jesus returns first), our eternal life with Him will last forever. The path of wisdom is to not over-emphasize this brief earthly life but to invest in your eternal life. In Matthew 6, Jesus invites you to invest your time, energy, health, and wealth into building God’s Kingdom because that piles up treasure in Heaven that will last forever. The eternal rewards you gain as you make disciples, proclaim Jesus, and love others in His name are infinitely greater than whatever earthly rewards you might amass by building your own personal kingdom on earth.
Where are you investing your energy, time, talent, and treasure? On the earth that you will leave behind in a matter of years? Or in the eternity you will enjoy with Christ for millions upon millions of years? Understand how short the life that you know is compared to the life that you already have in Jesus Christ. Then live your earthly life accordingly, devoting everything to building God’s Kingdom. #FollowJesus