Everyone in life is in a rat race pursuing something. We see
men and women every morning wake, head down the road, pick a bus heading
somewhere and they return at evening worn out. No matter how stressful the
previous day had being, they’d still head out the next day.
There is a rush in the city center; cars are hooting their
horns everyone trying to outdo the other person at pace, all heading different
directions. The question that permeates my mind often is “where are they all
rushing to?”
It’s painful that after many years of making the rush to our
companies, offices or pursuits, we return at retirement to the place where we
once started with nothing. Our labours of our youth to catch something in life
often seem a waste of precious resources. Interestingly, most persons make this
rush without God. No time for church, no time for prayers, no time for even
family. Many years down the line, they wish they had made the right decisions.
The late founder of apple computers, Steve Jobs had this to
say while on the sick bed heading out of life. “ I’ve realized that everything
I pursued was empty and aimless. I had gotten everything in life but I’m going
empty without God.” Steve realized his pursuit during his living years when he
could make the rush was aimless and baseless without God.
You will end with regrets if you happen to be the richest
man without God. Jesus told the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:
19-31. The rich man had everything he wanted and pursued. He was able to gather
so much but never cared about God. When he died, he realized he had made a
terrible mistake to have refused to heed God’s warning. He wished he could make
a comeback but it was too late.
We often are too anxious about the affairs of life that we
think we can help ourselves with everything that life offers. Jesus said in
Mathew 6 : 25 “do not be anxious about your life”. Of course we are afraid we
are going to get hungry, that we will put on rags, so we make a haste to make a
living.
What God is saying to you in Mathew 16:31 is “seek first the
king of God”, all other things will come as part of God’s package to you. The
key word is “first”. That moment we put God last in our dealings, we begin a
process of labour that ends us in nothing but a waste of our strength and
mental resources.
Peter asked Jesus a question in Mark 10: 28, we have left
everything and followed you, what is our profit? Jesus replied, “truly I say to
you there is no one who has left house or brother or sisters or mother or
father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive
a hundred fold in this time, houses and brothers, and sisters and mothers and
children and lands and persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.
The things you are holding to without God are nothing to the
possibilities you will get with him. Following God is about sacrifice. You will
lose your rights sometime, lose relationships, lose opportunities, but if you
are losing for God, it’s alright because in this life you will get a hundred
fold of those things you’ve lost and it’s going to arrive with persecution. The
dimension of blessings will arrive with people not been happy that you’ve
acquired the things you have acquired by the grace of God. They are going to
arrive waging their mouths.
The most important is that you will not be heading out of
this life without an insurance of an assured life in Heaven. That’s the best
part of following God. Jesus said “in his father’s house are many mansions, he
has gone to prepare a place for us so that where he is, that is where we will
be.
All our labour on earth will be vanity without God. Remember
your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days draw nigh when you
will say, you have no pleasure in them. Ecclesiastes 12:1 Fear God and keep his
commandment for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed
into judgment with every secret thing whether good or evil.
You don’t want to be part of those who will regret their
earthly years while still living on earth and head to hell and regret
eternally. You have to accept God today.
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