Urgency

1 Corinthians 7:29-31  -   What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;  those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep;  those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

Paul lived every day devoted to one thing…the Lord’s work.  Every decision that he made…every relationship that he nurtured….every tent that he made was driven by the true purpose of his life.  Paul lived and breathed to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and disciple those that accepted the grace that he gives when we trust him.  God had placed an urgency in his heart…a feeling that time is short…that his priorities should always have God’s work at the top of the list.

Paul is warning us here not to be driven by the isolated moments in our lives….or for that matter not to be controlled by the long term commitments we have made to others here on this Earth.  Whether we are married or single….sad or happy…rich or poor…we should rise every day and ask God what he has for us to do…to always live as if the day we were granted today is our last.  God could return today…this very moment to claim his children...or it could simply be time for him to come and get you or one of your loved ones…and take them to Heaven.  Worse yet…God may be granting permission for Satan to claim a lost person you know….to be banished to a world of misery! 

Today will be the first or last day of someone’s life.  In an average day…. 358,192 people are born and 154,889 die….somewhere in our enormous world. (source….https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html)…  started me thinking…just how many of those are lost?  If my actions today could ensure that one more person goes to Heaven….why would I not be doing everything possible to find that lost sheep….like the shepherd in Matthew 18: 12-14, “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off ? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”

Father…I wish I could say that I have always put you first…but you know my heart and how selfish I am most of the time.  Help me today to shed some more of that ‘me disease’…and begin to place you first in my life and work.  Teach me how to think of you as more important than where I live…what I wear….and whether I marry.  Show me your purpose for me on the Earth…and equip me to do what you need me to do.  Send me out to do your work…..whatever that may be.  Place in my heart an urgency….that time is short…that I must try to increase the number of people who know and love you every day. Amen.