In the light of eternity, our lives in this world are just a blink. James 4:14 says, “What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” The purpose of our very brief walk through this life is to make choices which will determine what kind of an eternity we will have afterward. The first and most important decision should be to accept the gift of eternal life and pardon for our sins which Jesus Christ purchased for us with His blood. The next decision should be to walk as closely with God as a redeemed sinner possibly can in this world. After that, the decision should be to fully commit ourselves to doing God’s work, bringing glory to Him by winning lost souls to salvation in Jesus Christ.
While a man’s purpose should be to establish and grow a relationship with our Creator, most people waste their lives trying to accumulate power and wealth. Some people kill and do all kinds of evil to accumulate material riches and power. One thing that everybody knows is that, at the end of our lives we have to leave everything behind. We can take nothing with us out of this world. The Lord Jesus told the story of an arrogant rich man who wasted all his life accumulating wealth and living in pleasure until one day God said to him, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:20). In Luke 16:19 – 31 another rich man foolishly wasted his life living in luxury. He died, was buried, and woke up in hell begging for a drop of water. That all happened at least two thousand years ago. That man is still in hell today, begging for a drink. All the wealth that he had accumulated in this world has not been able to buy him one drop of water in all this time.
Adolf Hitler killed millions of people trying to gain power over the whole world. So did Stalin. In the more distant past, so did Nebuchadnzzar, Alaxander the Great and Genghis Khan. After they had caused so much damage and death, they finally died themselves. All their wealth and power were forever gone. What remained was their guilt before God for all the suffering that they had caused. Hebrews 9:27 tells us, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” And as Paul said in Romans 14:12, “Every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” When we stand before God’s judgment seat it will not matter how rich and powerful we have been. What will matter is if we have had our sins forgiven and washed away by the blood of Christ. Most people today think that a relationship with God is very unimportant. But one minute after we die, a relationship with God will be the only thing that is important.
