Skip to main content

Accounting for Our Lives



            I'm not much of an accountant.  I basically try to spend less money than I make and go from there.  So far I have been able to get away with it living by this philosophy.  However, I do take account of how I live my life here on earth.  I could be more mindful of my choices, and I have a lot of help from the Holy Spirit.  My spiritual account is the most important account I will ever be held responsible for.
            There is a healthy reality that God has made clear to us in His word.  Though heaven is about relationship and faith in His provision of His Son Jesus Christ to cover our sin, how we live here on earth will matter in eternity.              It doesn't hurt us to give regular attention to this account as best we can.
            I'm not saying that I have any idea how God will see the account of my life.  I know it’s not just what I do, but why I do it.  He tells me I don't even know when my heart is pure or poisoned (Jeremiah 7:9: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?)  This doesn't bother me.  I don't think about the things that I can’t know for sure.  I simply focus on what I think He wants me to be doing with my life, confirmed in His word and go from there. 
            If you really live your life like this, what Paul calls—watching for His appearing, you are more likely to have the account you would like to give.  The Holy Spirit is constantly trying to get our attention away from the focus of this world that doesn't matter much for eternity.  We have help, but we need to choose whether to listen to His calling—that feels less natural, or to focus on things that seem urgent but really don't matter in the end.
            In his last letter to Timothy, his son in the faith, Paul wrote: Now there is in store for me the crown of rightlousiness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:8)  I'm sure Paul was taking account of his life in the days that he wrote this letter from prison knowing that his execution was imminent.  I'm sure that it was not the first time he thought about what might happen when he met our Lord.  He appeared to live his whole life with a heavenly perspective.  He didn't yell, scream and complain each time God permitted him to be beaten, shipwrecked or imprisoned.  He didn't care about his prison record here on earth.  What mattered to Paul was living his days getting to know God and doing His will as best he could. 
            We will each give account of our earthly lives.  I want to pay more attention to my heavenly account than what I focus on here on earth.  I go to my retirement planning meetings because I need to be ready for however many years God leaves me here, but my real focus is on growing closer to God and figuring out what He planned for me to do while I am here to do it.
Copyright © 2014 Deborah R Newman teatimeforyoursoul.com  All Rights Reserved.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are cr...
2 comments
Read more

The Bliss of Knowing You are Loved by God

            There is bliss of knowing that you are loved by a real and intimate God.   I have felt that bliss. I don’t experience it all the time and sometimes it takes me a while to notice how much I miss it.   Often I come back to my senses when I read the spiritual writings of one who is explaining how great God is and I am reminded how good He is to me.               I suppose the saints stayed more connected to the bliss of God on a regular basis and missed it far less than me.   I wish I knew their secret; all I can tell you is that it is a cycle for me to find myself unaware of God for a time.   It is often a struggle to reconnect each day. What brought me to my senses recently was a huge blessing He sent my way.   This good thing literally came to me directly from the hand of God.   I didn’t even consider sharing the joy I was ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Me?

              When something tragic or unexpected happens, our first question seems to be, Why me?   It’s only human to feel this way and wonder why life has got to be so hard.   God has helped me look at my unwanted circumstances with a different question.   Rather than keep the focus on my pain and ask, Why me?   I focus on Him and wonder, How can You be glorified when everything is going wrong?             Adding one more word to that question makes a huge difference spiritually and opens my soul to find so much more than just my pain.   Another way to look at life’s tragedies is, Why not me ?   Sure, we each have our own amount of personal sorrows. These are the kind of sorrows that have no answers.      We can't explain away death, cancer, rape, bankruptcy and other heartaches.   It is easier to explain...
Post a Comment
Read more