The law of sowing and reaping applies to us. The same laws that have always governed the universe will govern the declaration of our final destiny. There is no successful way to defy these laws. Not even God Himself is at liberty to set them aside.
If we don’t summon the courage to reject the opposite of life, then life in Christ cannot be ours. Like all other good things, the joys of life in God are the consequences of having a character that is not afraid to make big sacrifices.
The truth about God is not so hard to understand that it is beyond our reach. If we forfeit the privilege of seeing God someday, it will not be for a lack of ability or opportunity. It will be for a failure to make life’s basic choice.
While obviously sorrowful, the remembrance of our sins is a necessary part of our humility, gratitude, and even our joy. “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Joy and sorrow are inseparable” (Kahlil Gibran).
We should adopt real reverence toward God and commit ourselves to carrying out His instructions. “Respect and obey God! This is what life is all about.” Compared to this priority, nothing else even tips the scale. This is our all, our everything.
To defer dealing with God until we are out of our youth is a costly error. And if we’ve not yet decided whether we’re going to take God seriously, there is something we need to know: the question only gets tougher the longer we put off answering it.
From the beginning, God has spoken to the human race using actual words that can be understood rationally. This is remarkable when we stop to think about it, but it is nevertheless true that God has used human language to convey His will to us.
God is presented to us in the Scriptures as a transcendent God: He is radically “other” than His creation. And if that is the truth, then it is a serious mistake to give to the creation the reverence that ought to go to the Creator alone.
Christ did not die for the mere betterment of our feelings, and seeking God through Him is not mostly about pain relief. It is about character transformation. And even more than character transformation, it is about the glorification of God.
God did not show Himself to be dependable just so that we might sleep better at night. The demonstration of God’s perfect power and love leads us to trust Him, but we are led to trust Him so that we might once again obey Him!
