Your Eternal Life Now!
1Timothy
Too many Christians are crawling into heaven. Having already won the battle for their eternal destination, they still can continue to allow themselves to be bound by the lies of the enemy and the lure of this world. In the Apostle Paul's first letter to Timothy we see him exhorting Timothy about taking hold of the eternal life he was called to when he made his confession of Christ. We too have made such confession. We too have been called to eternal life. Sometimes however we seem to relegate this eternal life to something that is coming in the future. Something we have to look forward to but the key verse today clearly spells out that we are to actually take hold of that eternal life NOW; today. The truth is that as Christians, we should be living the life Christ Himself said He came to deliver unto us:
The
thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come
that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John
More abundantly, or as the NIV says, "to the full." Unfortunately, there are far too many in the kingdom who do not live the eternal life they have been called to. Their lives are not lived abundantly and to the full. Under attack from the enemy, we can waver. We can falter in our belief. We can start to play into the schemes of the enemy. Jesus says the enemy has come only to steal, kill and destroy. The chief way he accomplishes this is by taking your focus off of God and onto ourselves. Look, there is no doubt that we will face tribulation in this world, Christ said so:
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John 16:33
The enemy uses the tribulations in our lives to distract us from God. The more we focus on the problem, the less we focus on the problem solver. If we look at our own situations, under our own power, it is easy to become discouraged, depressed or anxious. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the problems we will face in life. That is a temporal focus however and God, as Paul instructs Timothy, wants us taking hold of the eternal.
And how do we accomplish this great feat? By seeking the will of God in everything that we do. God never fails. Nothing catches Him by surprise. There is nothing that will change who God is. His will is found throughout the Scripture, which is why it is so important that we read the Word daily. But tucked away in the closing portion of the first letter to the Church at Thessalonica we find a more explicit instruction:
