Looking onward and upward

He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

Isaiah 25.8

We are seriously stupid if we don't make time to stop and remember what it is we are living toward! It was the promise of reward that motivated Moses to forsake the passing pleasures of sin, not some deep rooted selflessness. We can often think that we should never consider our own well being and should be motivated by selfless reasons, but that is not the way God motivates us. He has a complete overwhelming desire for joy and he has made us in that image. When God commands man he always complements his commands with countless blessings that will come about as a result. He doesn't say, "Do this because you are wretched and worthless and I am all powerful!". He could, but he doesn't. He doesn't have to give us reasons to follow him, but he always does and we need to embrace these reasons. We need to be overwhelmed with the desire for joy that is found only in the presence of God, and therefore overwhelmed with a desire for God. Everytime things look hard or we are tempted to taste of the lies of sin we must stop and remember where we are heading toward. Not that we forsake all others to please ourselves, but that we come to realise that the only way to truly please ourselves is to forsake ourselves, please God and please others. It is our desire for self that causes us to stop looking out for ourselves and start trusting God.

We can think that a good deed is made better if there is nothing to be gained by the doer.

I'm sorry, but that's just insane!

Surely the deed is made better when more people can share in the joy it brings about, including the one doing the deed. We simply need to know how it all fits together. We lose our life to gain it. We carry our cross to fly to freedom. We fix our eyes on Jesus because he fills our hearts with joy. That's the only way I can get through the next day with the hope of victory over sin. The next hour even.

I fight the false fading pleasures of sin with the true everlasting pleasures of God.

Replace death for life.

Daily choose to fly.