What's Your Glory? (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

What's the real goal of your daily striving?  What is it that you most hope to accomplish through your efforts?  If you're successful in this quest, when you arrive at the end of your life and look back, seeing the results of it all, what will have been achieved?

For most of us, if we're honest, the things that reflexively come to mind are a comfortable retirement, financial security, a good reputation, successful family relationships, and the friendship and respect of our peers.  Perhaps some would add things like wisdom, education, power, or influence... all in a God-honoring context, of course!

What do you have in your life that most pleases you now?  What's the most exciting thought that holds your interest as you look over your current place in this life?  The ‘currency' we have to invest in what and who we are now, and what and who we're becoming, is a combination of our time, energy, and material resources that we intentionally expend our enhancing our mental and physical capabilities with our goals in mind.  These efforts define both how we're investing in the future and what we truly believe the future holds for us.  Where we give our time and strength defines the values and interests we hold most dear at the moment.

As Christians, we have an eternal destiny as well as an earthly existence.  Sometimes the interests of one will conflict with the other. When they do, our choices reflect the values we're truly most concerned with at the time.  Without real submission and diligence, our choices will almost always emphasize the priorities of this life in the flesh.  It takes a concerted and purposeful spiritual discipline and daily effort to make choices that reflect the eternal perspective, since the prevailing force of this world's system is so strong, so persistent.

And yet, eternity is so infinitely more important.  The greatest honor here is nothing there, and the least honor in Heaven is greater than the greatest honor on Earth, where after all our existence is just a vapor (Ja 4:14, Ps 89:47, Job 7)... a mere dot in time compared to the never-ending line of eternity.

Consider what the Lord says to us through Jeremiah the Prophet:

"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.

To understand and know Him... it won't happen unless we choose to pursue Him with our time, hearts, minds, and God-given resources.  As you consider your daily habits and overarching goals, are you investing your efforts wisely given the reality of eternity and the fact that only those things done while abiding in Christ can be taken with us from this life and matter for eternity?  Re-commit yourself to serving our sovereign Passover Lamb this Christmas and determine to make 2012 a year with renewed focus on investments that won't tarnish or burn-up!