...Taken Seriously

March 25

Life is too important to be taken seriously. - Oscar Wilde

Although things do not look optimistic today—economic calamities, saber rattling, betrayal of allies—you have to recognize that nothing has really changed. As you are told in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” The same evil entity who has been about the scheme of undoing the work of God plods on with his evil intent; and the same Christ who has brought his mischief to nothing will still reign eternally. Those who believe are citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3:20) and their great hope is Jesus. Nothing has changed.

But the one great truth that covers both the destiny of men and nations, contrary to the words of Oscar Wilde, IS TOO IMPORTANT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY—“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. Your receipt of Him into your heart as Lord and Savior is the one event of life that can transform you eternally. Because of the Lord’s life, death, and resurrection, no man need taste death. Because He died in your place, and because, “In Him is life and the life is the light of men,” John 1:4, you need never walk in darkness.

Life, who you are in the inner man, who you are as a parent to your children, who you are in Christ, who you are eternally, is far more important than the impact of the ever-deepening darkness of the hearts of people who are governed by humanistic arrogance rather than by Christ-centered love (II Corinthians 4:16).

Just as your citizenship is not in fallen Earth but in Heaven, so your hope, your strength, you peace, your joy, your faith, your love are not in empty, broken, miserably-self-absorbed people but in the One Person who can transform the darkness of this world—whether political or personal—into light. Your hope, your light, is now, as it has ever been, in Jesus alone.

When you grasp that truth, you are truly free, truly happy—for you know every good thing you possess comes from His hand. You know that what HE gives transcends the ever ebbing and flowing fortunes of time. People, circumstances, governments can't give peace, hope, truth; and people, circumstances, governments can't take peace, hope, truth away. So continue to live your life for the Jesus who you profess to love and trust. Continue to strive to make your sphere of influence radiant with His light and to transform every life that touches yours with the power of His love.

You are His; you do His bidding in the darkness, hoping that His glory as it reflects from you will draw others who will allow themselves to love Him and allow His light to transform their gloom into His radiance. Eternal life is far too important to be neglected. The souls of lost men hang in the balance so you must play your role of reflecting His light with utmost seriousness.