“Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” — 1 Timothy 6:12 (NASB)
Avoiding Shipwreck – Get A Grip On Eternity
The story is told of a businessman who passed a cemetery on an old country road. He turned around and went into the cemetery. Finding a worker digging a fresh grave, he asked to climb down into the hole. He laid on his back, looked at the clouds and blue sky for a minute and said, “I have been living for all the wrong reasons.” The businessman got up and drove back to his office. His employees said their boss was never the same.
In the Apostle Paul’s letter to his young disciple, he warned Timothy about a potential shipwreck of his faith. He urged Timothy to flee captivating desires, pursue the things of God and fight the resistance he would meet. Paul capped off his charge with “take hold of eternal life.”
Paul wanted Timothy to live in light of eternity. In a world that offers a boatload of shortcuts and counterfeits, we easily get caught up with what we can gain on earth. We forget that there is NOTHING in this world that is capable of fulfilling the deepest desires of our lives.
Author and theologian C.S. Lewis said it well: “If I find in myself desires which nothing on this earth can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” Therefore, we must live with Heaven in our sights.
When God intervened in your life and called you into a relationship with Him, it changed your destiny. Shift your grip from earth to Heaven and you will discover an urgency to flee sin and pursue the things of God, even in the midst of resistance.
– Tom Petersburg
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