PSALM 119:123 – My eyes long for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise.
THEME OF THE DAY. LIVING ABOVE THE FLOODWATERS IN LIFE. Ever feel life is like a flash flood crashing down upon us; a raging wall of water barreling down and ready to wash us away with its destructive force? Sometimes tough situations and difficult circumstances do feel like fast-rising flood waters. We do feel helpless and drowning in the sea of a life filled with demands, complexity, and often chaos. Yet, one of the most important aspects of a Christian’s testimony in a “flood-like” world is to display a life not swept away by its currents.
It is when Christians are learning to not be controlled by circumstances and situations, but live joyfully through circumstances and situations that we give the world the living reality of Jesus Christ and the power of His Gospel. So, how do we do that? How may we show the world the difference being a Christian makes in the daily difficulties of life? It begins with where our lives are oriented – heaven or earth. Where our minds and hearts are attached – heaven or earth – goes a long way in determining how we live our daily lives; joyful in Christ or stressed in and of ourselves.
In today’s scripture, the Psalmist is modeling for us the proper orientation Christians are to have toward life in this world. His longing is for heaven; for the fulfillment of his salvation. His life is centered on thinking more for the next world. This is important. Don’t buy into the false statement, “He or she is so heavenly-minded, they are of no earthly good.” Not true. And don’t say, “You don’t understand, Pastor Jim. I have so much in my life, so many demands upon me, I can’t think and live this way.” Yes, you can. God commands us to do so, and what God commands, God enables us to obey. Heavenly thinking is what truly makes us of the most earthly good for the Lord. C. S. Lewis captures this so well in his classic book Mere Christianity. He writes, “A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither.”
If we want to show the world the way to live above changing circumstances and the futility of trying to change challenging situations, then start thinking about life in the next world. Let these words of exhortation from the Apostle Paul become our daily thought patterns – “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3). If we do, when the next flood wave in life appears, we will not be crushed by the wave, but will ride above the wave and show the world the power of Christ and His Gospel.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You that my home and hope is not in this world but in the next.”
QUOTE: “We are best equipped to handle all the trials and troubles in this life by focusing more on the next.”