What do you seek the most? What is the top priority for you? Is it a nice, new home? Is it a top-level job? Is it a lifelong partner? Is it children or grandchildren? What are you doing to pursue your desire? What are you doing now to prepare for your ultimate achievement?
I hear many people wishing for a new home, a promotion in their job, finding a partner for life, and being a respected member of society. Unfortunately, I often see the same people doing nothing to pursue them. Achieving those things requires years of work.
What kind of work is required? More than just planning, though planning, even if rudimentary, is important. It requires us to recognize the next step and take it. To be successful in achieving our goals, we must keep them in mind each day. We must do today what will help us progress toward our goal and forgo those things that detract from it. It may require making hard choices. Some of those choices may mean detaching ourselves from friends, or even family. For instance, I had to leave a large portion of my family behind to retire from the Marine Corps.
But what do we hope for at the end of our lives? The prophet Isaiah tells us that we can spend eternity with joy and gladness. How? We must commit our lives to the Lord. In the same way we must make choices to pursue earthly goals, we must do the same for our eternal goal. Each day we can choose to live by the world’s standard or by Jesus’s standard. We can choose to speak and behave as the world does, or we can speak and behave as Jesus did.
We hear people speaking of the promises of God. We hear of golden streets, crystal palaces, continual joy, no more sadness, and a perfect world. All those promises are true. Yet, God has expectations for us. We may think they are restrictive, but they are no more restrictive than a parent with a child or a manager with an employee. There are steps we can take to be more like Jesus and be confident in our eternal home.
I pray we all desire to spend eternity with God. I pray we choose to commit our lives to the Lord. I pray each one of us will take steps to meet God’s expectations and follow the example of Jesus. Desire eternity with God. Commit yourself to the Lord. Seek to meet God’s expectations. Follow Jesus’ example.
Isaiah 35:10
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Marty Pressey 