Psalm 90:10
As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.
James 4:14
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.
Every human will experience the last gasp of breath in this life. Even though most would consider this thought morbid, it must be pondered. The final moment of our lives in our current physical bodies will arrive much faster than we can imagine. When the flash of transition arrives, time will expire instantly…and within that microspace, the realization that we have no control will reach its pinnacle.
In the terminating second of life on earth, no prized possessions accompany individuals. Only lone souls are positioned in the hands of a Holy, Sovereign God. Traditions cannot intercede to save. Political affiliations are of no use. Family and friends are not able to represent the newly deceased to vouch for his or her “goodness” and achieved status. All self-indulged works vanish as if they have never existed.
Only Jesus is there at the last breath…only He alone. If we have placed Him as our first love, we will be assured of peace in His presence. If we have habitually placed idols before Him, we will be ushered into eternal wrath. Family, nationalism, entertainment, and money will be unable to serve as high priests for our immortal souls.
Like Lot’s wife, we may gain a bird’s eye view of the truth, but we can still miss the Kingdom if our treasure is not in our Savior. If our first love is of the world, eternal life with the Lord will slip through our hands. Jesus has certainly and undeniably conveyed this truth to us. We should understand He alone is worthy, and He alone is the way to eternal life. In Matthew 10:37-39, Messiah states, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
Idolatry in this world comes in all forms. Personal empires, children, and spouses placed before Christ are obstacles to reaching the Kingdom. We must remember that only Jesus can bring fullness to our lives.
Ultimately, this temporal life will be a millisecond when applied to eternity. This reality is difficult to get our heads around now, but it is approaching each of us quickly. The most melancholy existence is to endure God’s wrath while wishing to experience that millisecond of His common grace again.
In all sincerity and humility, each of us should constantly ask ourselves, “Do I place Christ first and foremost above all other things?”
Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 13:44
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.“
Matthew 13:45-46
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Matthew 22:37
And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Luke 9:62
But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 17:32-33
“Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”
John 1:3
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
John 11:25
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies…”
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Colossians 2:6-12
Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over every ruler and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Hebrews 4:14
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession.