Can we trust God? It’s a giant query that we have now to wrestle with on this temporal arena. Consider Hebrews 11:1:
“Faith is the reassurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Think about that for a moment. Surely, it takes an incredible amount of risk to treasure the unseen over the scene and the not yet over the now. Some could also be tempted to see this as an invite to blind faith. But the center cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects. To engage in a holistic pursuit of God—one which joins head and heart—, we’d like to acknowledge that our faith is founded on fact, that it’s based upon the historical resurrection of Jesus from the dead and His success of messianic prophecies.
Two rival value systems compete for our allegiance and for our attention. One of those value systems is a temporal value system. The other is an everlasting value system. A temporal value system tells us to pursue pleasure. It tells us to pursue wealth, status, and power. The temporal system values these pursuits because they’re visible, tangible, and material. They yield a set of metrics that mislead us into believing we’re answerable for our lives.
A biblical perspective, nonetheless, gives us an everlasting value system. If we take an everlasting perspective, knowing God is the best pleasure. At first blush, this may increasingly appear to be a fairly weak reward in comparison with the temptations of wealth, status, and power. Stop and think it through, though, and we quickly realize that when temporal pursuits are seen as ends in themselves, they only result in deep restlessness. We are perpetually unfulfilled by them.
In sharp contrast, Scripture instructs us to treasure the things that will not be seen. How can we do this? I think that our presuppositions about life will shape our entire perspective. Francis Schaeffer wrote a book called The God Who Is There, which he then followed with He Is There and He Is Not Silent. That’s not a foul way of summarizing my two basic presuppositions in life, namely, that God is, the truth is, present in our day-to-day lives. The wellspring of all creation isn’t absent from our lives. But he’s also one who decisively communicated with us. The clearest revelation is the incarnation of His son. If that is so, what are the implications for our basic assumptions about life? If I really imagine that God is there and that He’s not silent, then I’ll treasure the everlasting over the temporal.
In the tip, Christ is within the technique of preparing us for our everlasting citizenship in Heaven. We’re living here for there. We can call this a kingdom mentality. But we must recognize that the truths of Scripture are counter-cultural. They’re going to be counterintuitive. It’s going to go against the grain of this temporal existence. Bear in mind what Jesus said in Luke 16, “That which is very esteemed amongst men is despised within the sight of God.” It’s a terrifying verse since it signifies that an individual could give their one life in exchange for what God says is worthless.
We don’t desire to return to the tip of a journey and realize we’ve devoted our lives to dust. Consider an analogy of life as a transient stay in a hotel. In that sense, we’re living out of suitcases. If we’re considering responsibly, we won’t worry an excessive amount of in regards to the interior design of our hotel room because we recognize its transitory nature.
In other words, we’re called to concentrate on those things that may endure, those things which can last. At present, we have now no memories of Heaven. Yet God gives us hints of home on this life and offers us enough hints to suggest then that there are hopes and purposes for our lives that basically do matter. I exploit these shafts. Think about C. S. Lewis in considered one of his last books, Letters to Malcolm. In this book, he uses the metaphor of going into the woods on a brilliant sunny day. The forest is so thick that, though the sun is shining, you’ll be able to’t see it directly. However, it’s not directly manifested by shafts of sunshine that pierce through the dense foliage and illuminate your pathway.
I think that God gives us those shafts of heavenly light. They are available in the shape of beauty, intimacy, and adventure. Something so beautiful your heart overflows. You wish to share it with someone. Regarding intimacy, consider the best connection you’ve got ever had with one other human being. Or consider probably the most existing adventure you’ve ever experienced. Those will not be the things themselves, but they’re hints of a greater good. Those are shafts that time beyond themselves to something we cannot yet see.
As I look back alone life journey and my very own sojourn all these years, I can inform you this with clarity: I even have never regretted an act of obedience to God. I could have resisted, but I’ve never regretted when I’ve chosen to obey him. But I’ve at all times consistently come to regret acts of disobedience, so it needs to be a no brainer when I’m tempted to do something. Yet, presently, it’s extremely possible that I could shoot myself within the foot. Obedience at all times is for our good. What He asks us to do causes us to flourish. Trust Him because He loves you adequate to pursue what’s best for you.
If my perspective shapes my priorities, you can also add that our priorities affect our practice. If I really embrace these thoughts, then it is going to have a bearing on my practice. When I would like to know what an individual’s true priorities are, I ask them, “How do you spend your time, and the way do you spend your money?” That will reveal it. Many times, people have a very good word about their priorities, but actually, their practice belies them. The way you spend your time, your assets on this world, and the best way you spend your resources on this world points to what your heart is treasuring. My desire is for us to be individuals who live with eternity in view. As a friend of mine put it, “Write your obituary now and see if it’ll play well in Heaven,” an interesting idea.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Bohdan Bevz
Kenneth Boa equips people to like well (being), learn well (knowing), and live well (doing). He is a author, teacher, speaker, and mentor and is the President of Reflections Ministries, The Museum of Created Beauty, and Trinity House Publishers.
Publications by Dr. Boa include Conformed to His Image, Handbook to Prayer, Handbook to Leadership, Faith Has Its Reasons, Rewriting Your Broken Story, Life within the Presence of God, Leverage, and Recalibrate Your Life.
Dr. Boa holds a B.S. from Case Institute of Technology, a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. from New York University, and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in England.
