Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. [NASB]

James 4:13

• Many people are trying to find purpose and fulfillment in their lives. Often times they look for this through a good marriage, strong relationships with friends, and through a career that is “rewarding” or consequential.




• As our lives get busier and our time becomes more precious, these “fulfilling” areas of our lives take on more importance. We’d like to think that the time we spend on these things is not a waste; that we’re getting a good return on our time-investment.




• If our marriages, friends, and career are not making us feel fulfilled, then they become a burden as we begin to imagine other things that we could be doing instead that would make us feel more fulfilled.




• This can lead to broken marriages and families, lost friends, and jobs that are a drain and source of constant anxiety. How often has a spouse left his or her family in order to “find something more” in their life?




• We often times look at careers as a vehicle to wealth and the false belief that possessions can make us happy and, therefore, fulfilled. Our career may provide us with power over others and, thus, feed our ego, er, self-esteem.




• Our ego is further fed by the notion that we must “leave our mark on this world”, so that people will know we were here. The idea is that, somehow, if people know about us after we’ve left this life, then our life had meaning.




• We use material possessions as a way to measure our success and accomplishments in life. If we were successful, the thinking goes, then we will have had wealth to show for it and thus purchased things and had exciting experiences.




• All of these things focus our lives on us. We think that we are the reason we are here. There is a danger in focusing on these vain, materialistic, and self-important things. The Bible warns us of the risk of focusing on our “accomplishments” and possessions, in this life, through Jesus’ parable of The Rich Fool:

And He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a certain rich man was very productive. “And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ “And he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”‘ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ “So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” [NASB]

Luke 12:15-21




• The purpose of our lives is to come to know God, through His Holy Spirit. We are to understand that we have sinned against God and broken His laws and only through the payment that Jesus made for us can we ever hope for an eternal life in Heaven. We are to worship and praise God for His kindness and love in making such a sacrifice for us and for forgiving our sins. We are then to serve Him by living the way He wants us to live, by telling others about what Jesus has done for them, and by showing others, through our actions, that we belong to God and our lives are no longer our own.

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [NASB]

Romans 6:16-23




• Our true fulfillment in life comes from serving God. Serving God in every way. Serving Him by reading His Word. Serving Him by worshiping Him and praising Him and going to church. Serving Him by living the way He wants us to live. Serving Him by fulfilling The Great Commission and telling everyone we encounter about the good news that they don’t have to be a slave to sin.




• The Devil wants us to believe that this life is all there is. Even for Christians, he would like us to believe that this life is the important life. That if we don’t fulfill our desires here, we’ll never get another chance. So, if we want that career, that business of our own, that perfect relationship; we better do everything we can in this life to get it. The Devil wants us so focused on this life that one wonders, if we did get everything we desired, if we’d ever want to move on to the next life to be with God in Heaven.




• As long as we’re focused on this life and living for ourselves, we’re not focused on the next life and living for God. If we are storing up treasures in this life, be they money, possessions, experiences, relationships; then we have no time left to store up treasures in Heaven.




• Are we using the talents, opportunities, and responsibilities that God has given us to serve Him or to fulfill our own desires? Do we use our skills to enrich ourselves or to serve God and spread His Word? Do we spend our time on our own pleasures or do we do work for God? Do we spend our time thinking about how we can serve God next or do we think about the next thing we want?




• On Sunday mornings, do we make time for God or for ourselves? Do we read God’s Word or do we read the things we want to read first and get around to The Bible if we have time? When we have conversations, are they with other people about the things we’re thinking of or are our conversations with God and about God? How much of our mind is filled with the things of God?




• If we surrender our lives to God, if we ask Him to show us how to serve Him; He will provide us opportunities to do His work. We will no longer worry ourselves with the pursuits of this life, which come and go and fade away. Our lives will be a service to God and our fulfillment will be the joy of knowing that we are living witnesses, of the grace and salvation of God, through our words, our actions, and our complete obedience to Him.




• These will be the things that give us satisfaction because of the assurance that they will live on into the next life. We do not belong to this life; we are simply passing through on our way to life eternal with God in Heaven. If we are good and faithful servants, our treasures will be in Heaven waiting for us.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” [NASB]

Luke 12:32-34