Sunday, March 14, 2010

The view from eternity

“When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me – until I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.” Ps. 73:16-17
Sometimes it can get really discouraging to see ungodly people prospering and godly people suffering. This is what the psalmist was struggling to understand. But he found the key: to look at everything from the eternal perspective. Only then can we see that God is completely fair and just.
If we just look at life at face value, things aren’t fair. Children are born disabled through no fault of their own. Christians die in tragic accidents along with non-Christians. Atheists win Lotto and get promotions. As the apostle Paul said, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Cor. 15:19).
The Christian life is not just about what we do during the 70 or so years we each spend on average walking on this ball of dirt. When we die, it’s not the end of the road. Far from it – that’s when we truly become alive. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is termporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).

No comments:

Post a Comment