What Fades? What Lasts?

“The world and it’s desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”       -1 John 2:17

A fashion fad pops up out of nowhere. The problems of racism and sexism have persisted for centuries. A rock in your backyard could well be thousands of years old. Whether it’s pocketless jeans, social injustice, or limestone, the things of this world will eventually fade. Certainly they wash away at differing frequencies. After a few short season, no one wore pocketless jeans anymore. Racism and sexism have thrived for centuries, but progress is being made all over the world to eliminate that way of thinking. And eventually, that rock in your backyard will be ground down so small that it too will cease to exist.

The things of this world are temporary. They may be so to differing degrees, but it does not change the fact that one day they will fade away, and what will be left? According to God’s word, what will be left are the men and women who concerned themselves not with those worldly, temporary things, but with the will and ways of God. Nobody wants to live a temporary life. We want to outlive our physical bodies through the words we say and the work we do. The impact we have on the world around us can assure that we are still alive long after we’ve died. And not only will we live forever in the hearts and minds of those we left behind, but those who seek the will of God will also be born into a new, everlasting life beyond the grave in the kingdom of heaven. It is there that, when the things of the this world, and even our impact on them has faded away, we will still be alive with our Heavenly Father. 

If we want to outlast the temporary, we have to focus on the eternal. 

PRAYER: Dear God, I thank you for the everlasting life that you offer through Christ. I pray that today, you would help me to focus on eternal things. Do not allow me to get caught up in the temporary worries, troubles and desires of this world, but help me to seek your will and your everlasting life at all times.

Erin Jorgenson