Bethany Beckett, missionary to Mexico, died from a heart attack on October 25, 2010, one day before her 24th birthday. Nine days before she died, she wrote, “All the pleasure we can have in this world won’t even compare to what God has in store for us in Heaven. This life is short, eternity is long. When we get to Heaven, I’m pretty sure we won’t remember the things we thought we were missing out on, or even the things we thought were so great….”
David Alves, missionary, commented, “Really, how important is that Hollywood movie, or who won the World Series? To live is Christ! To die is gain.”
Abraham Lincoln said, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. ”
James 4:13-15 reminds us, “What is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” My life: it’s brief.
Paul says (Galatians 2:20), “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me….” My life does not belong to me. As a believer in the Lord Jesus, I now am dead to the old sinful life, and have been brought into a new kind of life (1Cor. 6:19, 2Cor. 5:17). Without Christ, in our sins, we could not please God (Rom. 8:8), and even in Christ in our own strength we can do nothing (John 15:5). But “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (NKJV). He who gave me my life gives me the ability to live it (Rom. 8:4). Our life is now bound up in the life of God, and we live for and through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us (2Cor. 5:14-17). Is this new life a bondage? No! It is liberty from a life of sin. It is being brought in to share the heart and life of God. When He lives in and through us, we experience His life, which is truly living. Why would I want my own way when I can share in the life of God?
Romans 7:20 says, “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me…” My life is not bound. With a new nature, I am no longer under bondage to sin (Romans 6:14-18, Heb. 10:16). Though I am responsible for my actions (2Cor. 5:10), that old nature is no longer the real me, and it will one day be done away.
Finally, we learn from 1Cor. 15:10 that my life is not boastworthy: “But by the grace of God I am what I am… I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. ” You could see this verse as though Paul were saying, “Don’t look at me: I wasn’t the one doing the labor; the grace of God did the work.” I am only who I am by the grace of God.
So in summary,
If Christ lives in me, then it doesn’t matter about my abilities: I can be greatly used of God because it is His power. My part is but to have a surrendered will, a steadfast faith, a devoted heart.
If I no longer desire to live a life of sin, then I live in His perfection.
If my life is a result of God’s grace, then I enjoy His provision to make me who I am.
And if my life is so very brief, let me consider His purpose, that I might not lose out on what is truly living: the life of God.