MORNING MANNA 7-30-23
FAR BETTER
According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.- Philippians 1:20-24
It is easy for us to get caught up in the things of this world and forget that we are not meant for here but for eternity. While it’s not uncommon for people to take a pillow on an airplane with them if they hope to sleep, we would certainly think it was strange if they brought sheets and blankets and pictures and lamps and set up house. The plane is just taking them from one place to another, and is never meant to be their home.
John Rice wrote, “This world is only an anteroom of the next. This short life is incidental compared with eternity. This world is not home to the Christian. Here we are only sojourners, temporary dwellers in a foreign land. Our citizenship is in Heaven. Our treasure should be in Heaven. Our thoughts should dwell lovingly and longingly on that sweet home of the departed saints, of our Savior and of our Heavenly Father.”
Jesus described those whose lives are never productive because their focus is on the things around them rather than the things of God. “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). If we want our lives to count for God, we must keep our focus on the eternal and remember this world is not our home.We must keep our affections fixed on eternal things so that temporal things do not render us ineffective in service to God.(Daily in the Word)
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
Humble, Tx
