How To Live In Light Of Eternity

There are big issues. There is a lot at stake. When matters of safety, health, identity, and justice grab my attention, I need to peel my eyes off the matters directly before me to refocus them on the gospel and eternity. Without that lens, I’m hopeless to see the problems of this world in proper perspective. But then what does it mean to live in light of eternity and how do we do it?

God is Our Dwelling Place

We can see, feel, and hear that this world is not what it is supposed to be. A longing within us reminds us we aren’t home yet. While we sojourn on this side of heaven we are able to make our home, wherever we physically are, in the presence of God. We dwell with him by seeking him, beholding him, and following him in obedience. 

This means in everyday, mundane routines and work, we can choose to live in God’s presence by offering up our attitudes and actions in worship. We can worship God in anything and everything. Driving to work can be worship. Making a meal. Doing the shopping. It’s possible because God goes with us. Before and behind us. He hems us in.

We Elevate Jesus

In our hearts we elevate Jesus as our most prized treasure, more valuable than anything the world can offer us. The rich young ruler asks Jesus to explain how he can have eternal life and enter the kingdom of God. Jesus pointed out the one thing the young man could not conceive of losing for the sake of following Jesus—his possessions. When I consider my own life, I wonder, is there anything I would not be able to lay down for the sake of knowing him? This is a hard question that is worthy of my thoughtfulness and prayer. 

Practically, we make much of Jesus by loving what he loves and prioritizing what he values. Relationships. People. Truth. Service and sacrifice. Let’s pursue those things and show our love of Jesus by putting him in the forefront of all we do. 

Jesus is Our Righteousness

Living in light of eternity means we recognize and believe Jesus did something for us on the cross that we can never do. We can never earn our righteousness because God’s standard for those who enter his presence is perfection. Holiness. Then how do we have hope for eternity? Jesus becomes our righteousness and we stop striving to earn our spot in heaven. It cannot be done apart from Jesus.

There is freedom in surrendering to that truth. We do not earn God’s love. It is given freely. We do not obey him in an effort to prove our independence and goodness. We obey him because we are thoroughly, 100% dependent on him for absolutely everything. Even your next thought.

There is Purpose in Suffering

We are encouraged knowing the suffering we endure today is preparing us for the overshadowing “glory beyond all comparison.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) Our suffering is not pointless. The knowledge of a home that waits for us in the “eternal heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1) gives us courage to withstand our problems today.

C.S. Lewis speaks of suffering and eternity this way. 

“Son,” he said, “ye cannot in your present state understand eternity…That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say ‘Let me have but this and I’ll take the consequences’: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why…the Blessed will say ‘We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,’ and the Lost, ‘We were always in Hell.’ And both will speak truly.”

C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

In Light of Eternity

In light of eternity, there are no coincidences, no senseless sufferings, no being or speck that can claim to live outside of God’s sovereignty. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

In light of eternity, there are no coincidences, no senseless sufferings, no being or speck that can claim to live outside of God’s sovereignty. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Click To Tweet