This morning while reading about the kings of Judah, there was something that stood out to me. The Bible said they started out with the worship of God only to end their lives worshiping idols, allowing idol worship in. So the thought this morning is what God’s book has to say about my life.
To the young: You are just starting out on your life’s journey. What will it take for life to move you off your relationship with God? Will success, failure or sickness stop you from walking with God?
To the middle age: What will it take for you to slip back to your old ways? Will keeping busy at work taking care of a family? How about setbacks in your finances and the loss of things? What about the death of a child, or the loss of your mate by death or divorce, or severe sickness?
To the old: Life has thrown you everything that the young and the middle aged will see, and maybe you have stayed the course. But will you quit the journey feeling that there is nothing you have left to offer that anyone wants or needs?
I know that the Bible writes about me, as it does all of us. I know that there are many things that I’ve done that I will have to answer for one day. But I also know that my Lord has forgiven it all, and my desire is just to finish strong for the Lord trusting in His love and strength. I will remember this quote I heard, “You will be remembered for how you finished, not how you started.”
So here is what the Word says about this life we live whether we are young, middle aged, or at the end of our lives.
“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-10,16-18 NLT
“Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NLT