Influence outlasts affluence
Soul Snack 123/11 ... Shaping Life
This world continues to fall apart:
- sin is honored,
- justice is handcuffed,
- mercy is absent,
- people die unseen and unknown,
- disease is as common as sin is popular,
- nations exist upon corruption,
- countries are bankrupt,
- individuals are crushed,
- children starve,
- mothers wilfully kill babies,
- disasters strike with unstoppable ferocity,
- poverty spreads,
- families are broken,
- ill-will is born without reason,
- Jesus' own are burdened, attacked and slain while
- only a handful of others will honor the name of the Saviour of the world.
Yet I am consumed alone with my own pettiness, my unreasonable jealousies, my perceived injustices and my constant covetousness.
I give scant regard to the plight of others and the needs of the naked, the hungry, the imprisoned. I give even less frequent prayer. Each day I subtly nail Jesus again in my devotion to me.
My avarice, jealousies and desires are mere vapors upon the span of life, but what Jesus cares for is the eternal. Jesus shaped His life to influence beyond this world - He still does!
So where does my influence lie, when will it stop? I can leave a legacy in this world for the next that will not finish until Jesus' returns.
My influence can last long after my affluence has gone. Sow for tomorrow today, for tomorrow will always be -- long after today is gone.
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun. (Eccl 9:5-6)
Today's Soul Snippet: