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I’m exploring this week about living like you’re dying. Yesterday we looked at the very short parable about the man who found a treasure in a field and then sold everything he had to buy that field and have that treasure.
Here’s the truth of that parable: Jesus is worth losing everything for. Jesus is the treasure we have, and he is worthy of everything. And when we get just a glimpse of how valuable this treasure is, giving up anything for Jesus is not a sacrifice. We do it with great joy, because we have a treasure that is unlike any other, so whatever we give up for that treasure is small in comparison. It’s not a sacrifice; it’s a smart transaction.
As Jim Elliot put it: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
We cannot keep our days here on this earth. They pass one by one, and they are numbered. And nothing you do can change that. Your days and my days are fleeting. But what we do with our time and our efforts can last for eternity. We can send on ahead of us treasures of all kinds; we can have crowns to cast at Jesus’ feet when we stand before him in Heaven; we can leave behind us a legacy that leads others to believe.
Toward the end of his very short three-and-a-half-year earthly ministry, Jesus said:
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do (John 17:4).
My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work (John 4:34).
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me (John 6:38).
Why did Jesus leave the greatest footprints ever? Because he came to do the Father’s will, not his own. He was totally submissive and obedient to his Father.
If it’s true—and it is—that as believers we are in the process of being transformed into the likeness of Jesus with ever-increasing glory, then it should be true of us that we are here to do the Father’s will. We’re living for eternity; living like we’re dying to this world and sending treasures ahead to our eternal dwelling place.