I don't know about you, but probably one of the hardest concepts for me to apply is the realization that while I have to live in this world, this world is not my home. While I have a purpose and work to do in this world, this world is not to be my primary focus. While there are many, many interests competing for my attention every day in this world, none of them are all that important. This world has the ability to consume us. To many, the world is reality and God and heaven are just dreams, fantasies. While I cannot deny that the pains and suffering, the longings and feelings, the joys and loves of this world are very real to us, they are only real like a soap bubble that is there.......then is gone, and contain about as much substance. While there is truth and meaning to be found in this world, mostly we are surrounded by the results of the prince of lies and deceit. And yet we cling to this life and its lies and transitory substance with mislead hope and aspiration. Jesus tell us in John 12:25 that,
"The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
Was it easier for Jesus to live in this world than it is for us? After all, he says in John 8:23,
“You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world."
To believe that it was easier for Jesus would be to put into question the fact that Jesus was fully human in addition to being fully God and would make a mockery of His suffering and death on the cross. So how did Jesus overcome this world and live in it without letting it enslave Him? For one, He lived in perfect obedience to the Father. He never allowed His focus to waver from the Father. Instead, he cultivated an intimate relationship with the Father and through this relationship was able to continually renew His mind to heavenly things when tempted by things of this world. Romans 12:2 says,
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
And 1 Corinthians 3:19 goes on to say,
"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
We have to stop living for the world and start living for our real home which is heaven. There is a kind of paradox. On the one hand, we often think, especially when we are younger, that death is a long way away and we have all the time in this world that we need. For this we are reminded in 1 Corinthians 7:29,
"What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away."
So it is good to remember that we have a purpose in this world that is greater than making money, than finding a mate, or accumulating things and that we should use our short time in this world wisely to achieve the purpose for which God has sent us.
On the other hand, we have to stop living as if our 80 years on this earth is all there is and then we are at the end. No, we will all live forever. Forever separated from God in hell or forever united with God in heaven. Forever is a whole lot longer than 80 years, is it not? Therefore, doesn't it make more sense to live today preparing for your "real" life in heaven? If you are still a slave to the sins of this world, take heart, I too used to think heaven was kind of a dreamer's fantasy that might or might not be real and liked to think I was smart enough to rely on intellect and logic instead of that faith stuff. As Ephesians 2:1 says,
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."
The wrath of God that is. But there's a happy ending to this story and hope for any of you who now realize that this world holds nothing for you. For Ephesians 2:4 goes on to say,
"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. "
Father, I pray that this world will lose its hold on me more and more completely as my relationship with you grows, and by growing faith in Christ Jesus I learn that He has already overcome the world and by allowing Him to live fully within me and direct my daily actions, I too can overcome the sins and temptations of this world. I pray that anyone who does not yet know You and who is still enslaved by the lies of this world, will make the decision today to allow you to set them free and to realize that their future is not of this world.
