1 Kings 12-13
Luke 22:1-30

“Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” —James 4:14

The opening verse of this devotion is something we can all be sure of: we can be here today but gone tomorrow. 
I remember taking a walk and there was a funeral procession that came down the road. I have no idea whose funeral it was, but I do know that one day,

I am going to have a funeral and so will everyone else. Our life is temporary so we should not boast about tomorrow.

There was a man who boasted about tomorrow in the Bible. Jesus tells us a parable about him, “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” (Luke 12:16-20). This man was going along enjoying life and was successful. He was planning for a better tomorrow but what he had not realized was that that very night, he had an appointment for his soul.

Would this describe us regarding the reckless way in which we are treating the gospel of Jesus Christ? Maybe our spouse is a Christian and we are not; we go to church with them but have never settled our issue with God. Or maybe our parents are Christians and we think, “I’ve got all the time in the world.” But we do not. The gospel is limited to the brief time that we have in this life.

The author of Hebrews tells us, “...people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment...” (Hebrews 9:27). We are not appointed to die and then given a bit of time beyond that to make up our minds. We die and we have judgment for this life and for this time. This should give us urgency for our own need to be right with God—to be reconciled with God.

We live in a time of invitation between the first and second coming of Christ but that too is limited to the length of our own life. Have we settled our issue with God? If not, would we take the time now to respond to the working of the Spirit of God within our own life in drawing us to Christ?

Lord God, I want to be made right with You. Thank You for the reminder that my life is temporary. I surrender all that I am into Your hands. Amen!

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