Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t immediately take us to Heaven after we are saved?
Well, I have. …(not so much on fun days like this one in the picture with my Ben, but on the harder days… I sure have).
But, this I know and believe, God has good reason for everything He does.
So, why are we still here if He has saved us? Well, probably a billion reasons we don’t know about, but one thing, we do know for sure is this—to give glory to God.
This is our calling!
In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul says “Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess 11-12).
Paul prays for those who have believed to be worthy of the calling of the gospel by glorifying Jesus with their lives.
And THAT should be our prayer and our goal as well.
If we have realized that our souls have been snatched from Hell by the blood of the the Son of God, shall we not live to give glory to Him?
We are here to give glory to Him.
God did not save us and then take us straight to Heaven (He could have, of course!)
No, we are still here, and here with a purpose—that the name of the Lord would be glorified in and through us!
We are here to tell others about what Jesus has done for us.
We are to make disciples who make disciples! (Matt 28:19-20)
The question is, can others see Jesus in us ,or do we look just like the world?
The other day, a friend from high school texted Ben to see if they could meet and talk about Jesus.
Years ago, they had played basketball together for their middle and high school teams, but Ben had requested to leave public school the middle of his sophomore year.
He had lots of friends and had lots of fun, but he called me one day to say, “Mom, you can’t stand in the storm all the time and not expect to get wet”. He complained that his faith was being negatively impacted by the kids, the teachers, and even the curriculum.”
We homeschooled the rest of high school. Ben missed his friends, and there were days he wondered if he had made the right choice; but he grew in his faith. Though it wasn’t easy, he chose to look different than the world.
And all these years later, others still see Jesus in Ben.
Will you pray for the friend who called Ben? He’s attending the small group that Ben leads. Will you also pray for Ben as he works full-time and does seminary online (he’s studying Hebrew right now and… it’s hard!)
And, let’s pray for each other.
Let’s makes the hard choice to live each day worthy of the calling we have on our lives. May others see Jesus in us!
As these difficult days of 2020 cause others to think about eternity and they are, are you seeing it, too?) —may they think of us when they want to talk about our wonderful Savior! May we be prepared to give an answer for the hope we have! (1 Pet 3:15)
Because we have it, we have such HOPE because of our precious Savior!
The Bible tells us, this life is but a breath (James 4:14) The older I get the more I know it’s true. May we use our breath to give glory to the One to whom all praise is due!
Kim Jaggers Ministry 