"To Be Worldly Minded Is No Heavenly Good” Series

I love the old story told about a young man whose boat capsized in a story at sea. He was headed for shore, but the boat turned over before he could reach safety. He was, however, close enough to a large rock that jutted just above the surface of the water. He was able to climb to safety there, but was too far to swim to shore,

especially with the raging storm. So he waited there until a rescue team came to get him. Once safely on shore, someone asked, “Did you tremble while you waited on that rock to be rescued?” “Indeed I did,” he replied, “But I am grateful that the rock did not.”

I had a lady in once tell me after a sermon on how God works in our lives through times of tribulation, “Preacher, sometimes all I know to do in times of tribulation is to tribulate.”

Well, that is often our response when facing difficulty. But thank God, though I might tremble, the Rock of my salvation does not!

We’re often tempted to think God has abandoned us when we have difficult days. When this happens, we especially need to look to Christ.

I heard a father tell how he and his young daughter went on her first ride at the county fair. When the ride started, they were spinning around and moving about, and the little girl was tempted to be scared and start to cry. But then she looked over to her father, caught his eye, and heard him say, “Isn’t this fun?” And she calmed down and began to instead enjoy the ride.

That’s what we need to do when tempted to think God has abandoned us. We need to seek His face and hear His voice, and realize He is with us and will never abandon us. As we do, we can then learn how to enjoy the ride of life as our hearts are filled with the joy of the Lord.

There are two ways to ride a roller coaster, with your hands up, or with your hands clenched. The first way is the only real way to go!

Same with life. Live it with your hands raised, secure in the knowledge that God will never abandon you, even when it might seem that He has. Every day, but especially in those tough times, we should seek to not focus on our changing circumstances, but on our unchanging God. We need to set our hearts and minds on Christ, because in Him we have eternal security, and to be worldly minded is no heavenly good.

3. In Christ we have eternal hope - v. 4

Now, our lives are hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ appears is revealed in all His glory, we also will be revealed in all our glory, for we will receive a glorious resurrection body like that of our Lord.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” - 1 John 3:1-3 (NIV)

The world has yet to see what we’ll be like as Children of God once God is through with us, but we can see what we’ll be like as we set our hearts and minds of Christ. This hope, which one day we’ll fully realize in our experience when Christ returns should motivate us to learn how to walk daily in the victory won by the cross. I want to learn how to say “no” more and more to sin and say “yes” more and more to God.