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What’s Your Goal By Brooke Thomas
As Christians, we often talk about how our “goal” is reaching heaven. And of course, we definitely don’t wish an eternity apart from the presence of our Creator, in darkness and the absence of good, so heaven is one of our goals. However, I heard someone poise the idea one day that maybe it was possible that as Christians our main priority should not be “getting to heaven,” but something else. I’m not sure I remember what that person’s something else was, but it was in line with the standard, the Word of God. That stuck with me, and I think maybe they were right. Maybe as Christians we get caught up with one goal that is really only intended as a reward of a right relationship with our Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. - John 14:13 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. - John 15:8 There are quite a few scriptures that bring home the message that we are to glorify our Father. It makes me pause and wonder, if we are aiming to glorify God and point others to him, then maybe our eternal life with Him is a reward that will naturally come.
Is it possible that
when we make our reward our goal we get caught up in ourselves, and everything
we do we do out of that desire for our reward? I believe that God wants us to do
all things out of love for one another, so maybe we are actually doing things
out of the wrong motivation if our main goal is heaven. Maybe we are getting our
priorities out of order, putting the cart before the horse so to speak. We know
that God desires us to be in heaven with Him, but if that’s our main goal, we
miss the point of being like God in His love for ALL of us, putting others
before ourselves, and helping to bring them into a right relationship with Him
so that we can ALL be in His service eternally. You, my brothers, were called
to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather,
serve one another in love.
...Jesus said unto
him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets. When heaven is our main goal, we tend to struggle with things such as pride and self-righteousness, because we are worried about getting ourselves to heaven. We begin to compare ourselves to others instead of focusing on showing others our God. We might see areas in our life that we don’t have a problem with, compared to others, and forget our shortcomings. That causes us to look down on others and we start looking less and less like what God wants us to look like as children of His. We become a dusty mirror that cannot properly reflect His love. When we focus on glorifying God and bringing others into the right relationship, we are concerned with those outside ourselves and how our actions affect their view of our Father. This in turn, creates a clearer reflection of our Father’s love and is more like what He intends. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. - Matthew 5:16 Maybe really our journey on earth is all about helping others develop a relationship with their Father. Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of my Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you.... - Matthew 28:19-20
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