Do you feel out of place? Or do you feel as though you are right where you are supposed to be? Are things going along smoothly? Or have you hit a rough patch in life? Is your life going as you planned? Or has it been derailed? Are you living your life as God would have you live it?
Sometimes we fit in and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes life flows along smoothly and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes our lives go as planned and sometimes it doesn’t. Living our lives how we want can go smoothly for a while, but it often gets derailed at some point.
Life takes some odd twists and turns. One day it is all smooth sailing and the next it’s a shipwreck. We may have missed the iceberg just below the surface, much like the captain of the Titanic. Suddenly we are lurched into emergency mode, reacting to things gone badly.
When we look at today’s passage, we may think the Apostle Paul has gone mad. But don’t read just the individual words, read the passage as a whole. What is he saying? In effect, he is saying be sober minded. Be serious about life. Now, that doesn’t mean can’t have some fun. We can enjoy the birthday parties, Christmas celebration, and be jubilant while watching our children.
Paul is talking about the day-to-day attitude concerning life. He is encouraging us to keep our eyes wide open. See things for what they really are. Stop looking through rose-colored glasses. We are to stop holding onto worldly possessions. Not to say we are to sell them off, but to realize they all belong to God, and we are temporary stewards of them.
Why is this important. This is part of seeing our lives and the world as God see them. This is acquiring God’s perspective. The more we understand and see according to God’s perspective, the closer our relationship with him. This world is passing away. Everything in this world decays, rots, and withers away. We are to look forward to the perfect kingdom in which we will spend eternity.
I pray we all take a sober approach to life. I pray we hold on loosely to worldly possessions. I pray each one of us see from God’s perspective and grow closer to him. Have a change of attitude. Change your perspective. Live life soberly. See as God sees. Look forward to eternity.
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
Marty Pressey 