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“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ” Philippians 3:8
What is the most important thing in your life? Generally speaking, the thing that is the most important in our life is what we gain our identity from.
For some of us we would say that our most important thing is our children. For others it may be our career. For others it may be our social action activity. Still others may look at the future and may say the most important thing now is to prepare for the future by building a nest egg for our kids for college and for our retirement.
It’s important to realize that none of those things are bad things in anyway. The things that we have in this life are important. But the most important things are we what we are laying up for ourselves in eternity. Each of us will face eternity whether we believe in it or not. The important question is “how are we preparing for eternity?”
The apostle Paul put all of these things, relationships, finances, family, and careers in the same category as garbage! It isn’t that he doesn’t think they are important, he has just come to the realization in his life that the most important thing to him is his faith in Jesus Christ. Everything else may fall away but our faith will remain strong through every circumstance.
The fight for power, rights and control is never more evident than it is today. This fight is driven by emptiness, pain, and hatred. It shows itself in anger. There will be no peace this side of Heaven.
There will be no contentment until we grow deeper in Jesus. The deeper we go the more peace we gain. It’s much like mining for diamonds. We can stop in shallowness and enjoy the a few low quality diamonds or dig deep and get the best ones. The best diamonds are deeper and get better the deeper we go. Grow deep! Reap the best God has for you.
“So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.” 1 Peter 1:13
Yesterday we talked about the importance of being ready, being prepared for action. Peter warned his readers that difficult times were ahead. He reminds us to be prepared for action and committed to the ways of God so we will be able to endure everything that lies ahead of us.
There’s one more aspect of this verse that should not be ignored. Peter tells us to put our hope in Jesus and in the salvation he offers. But there’s also a line in this verse that I don’t think we should forget. Peter reminds us that our salvation, the hope that we have, won’t be fully realized until Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.
Salvation through Jesus has both a present and a future aspect to it. As we go through life, we know we are forgiven,. As we live for Jesus , we experience the peace and the love of God. But our salvation won’t be complete until Jesus is revealed to the whole world.
This is important because the people that Peter wrote to, and millions after that, never saw that hope revealed. They never saw Jesus revealed to the world because that will not come until his second coming. That time we are still waiting for and I believe is very imminent.
Hebrews chapter 11 tells us of people of faith who put their hope in God but never saw the promise of the Messiah in their lifetime. In spite of that, they are in God’s Hall of Fame of faith because they never let go of the hope he promised them.
We may not see Jesus come in our time. We always need to be ready for his return but patient and realizing his kingdom will never be in this world until he comes in great power and glory.
In the meantime as Peter says in the beginning of this verse, we need to be ready. We need to be prepared. Continue to keep the faith. Remember our citizenship is in heaven. There will come a day when our salvation will be complete and Jesus will be revealed in all his power.
There are two things we can know about God. He never acts the way we expect him to. Secondly he always acts in the way he said he would, according to his character and his love. Be faithful. Be hopeful. Be ready. But be patient. God has always come through on his promises.
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