Five Pitfalls To Avoid In Life (Three)

 

For the past three days I have been writing on the theme above. It's an exposition on portions of John 6. I have already treated the first two point; Don't Live The Expectations of Others and Living In The Past. Today I continue with the third point:

3: Living For Temporal Things

Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto
you: for him hath God the Father sealed (John 6:27).

Consistently, Scripture warns us against making the world and its possessions our standard. The Bible is replete with such instructions: "Set your affection on things above...Love not the world...Seek ye first the Kingdom...The life of a man is not made up of his material possessions...what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul...etc."   

You see, after Jesus has fed the people; the next day, they showed up again looking for Jesus; not because of His person, but because of the food they ate. They came for more! They came for "what is in it for me". Their focus and attention was on the food, instead of the giver of the food. As usual, Jesus gave them an answer that is as relevant in our days as it was when it was first spoken:

Labour not for the meat which perisheth [temporal things]....

In these words, Jesus was pointing to the people what matters in this life. He was calling for a life beyond temporary things. He was calling for a reordering of priorities: "Come to me...not to the things I will give you". "Seek eternal life...not temporal life". Now, eternity is rarely a topic amongst us. Check our church programs. Sample the theme of the messages we hear daily. The "here and now" is top on our list: Our everyday faith language predominantly centers on material things: money, visa, mansions, cars...add to the list. That is what I call "butter and bread faith": It's shallow, it's temporal and it will perish. I think in our days, we have become selective in our approach to faith; we have developed tickling ears. We want to hear exactly what we want to hear; not what God wants to say.
 
Let's face it: we are not here to stay, one day, we will depart and all things temporal we have built here on earth can't follow us into eternity: "...we brought nothing into this world, and it is CERTAIN we can carry NOTHING OUT". (1 Timothy 6:7). We can carry nothing out...Empty handed we came...empty handed we shall return. What is your life built on; the temporary, earthly, material things of this life? Make a wise choice, "Labour...for that meat(the word of God)which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed". Build your life on a foundation that can't be shaken....