Canaan was different than anything Abraham could have imagined in Ur, but the result of sojourning there was also better than anything he could have enjoyed elsewhere. He “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
We need to live life with death in mind. Our minds should be governed by neither a morbid fascination with death nor a gloomy fatalism, but simply a healthy understanding that we have only a few days in which to get our work done.
With our words we may say God is our most pressing priority, but if our schedule books show that on most days we spend very little time on that pursuit, who are we fooling? Where our heart is, there our “To Do” list will be also.
We need something superior to us to reach toward. Though we often suppose that independence, autonomy, and equality are the things we need, what we really need is a Being who is higher than we — One in whose supremacy and sovereignty we may rest.
If God hasn’t yet judged the world that doesn’t mean He is indifferent to evil; it means He is still holding the door of salvation open. His longsuffering is nothing less than our salvation. We are the world’s greatest fools if we don’t see that.
Any goal less powerful than being with God in eternity will fail to keep us going. We must fix our hearts upon our Lord and determine that we are going to run the race, come whatever may. There can be no question or equivocation about it.
We should reject our pre-Christian past decisively. If thinking about “Egypt” tempts us to go back, even if it’s just in our hearts, we must determine not to do it. After all, it is not backward but forward that we are reaching. To the Promised Land!
Your activities must be motivated by love, first for God and second for your neighbor. If that’s the case (and God knows whether it is or not), then discouragement will not defeat you. Other motives may falter, but “many waters cannot quench love.”
Will we live with God in eternity? If we leave this life in a right relationship with God, we will hear Him say, “Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matthew 25:21). But if not, we will hear, “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matthew 7:23).
Why do we do what we do for God? If no one ever noticed or thanked us, would we be content simply to know that God had been glorified? Too often, what we’re really seeking is some (special) person’s “recognition” that we’re a good individual.
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