“If your hope is not in Christ, your life and your dreams are headed for disaster. The underlying question beneath all the others is this: Can you say that to live is Christ and to die is gain? You may go to church, sing praises to God, pray every day, and try to be a good, God-fearing person, but that still doesn’t answer the question.”- Chip Ingram
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”- Romans 12:2 (NIV)
Chip Ingram concludes Chapter 6 of I Choose Joy as he counsels not to anchor your hope in a good income, family life, or health. Because if your joy depends on those things, Chip cautions, you’re setting yourself up for discouragement.
So, Chip asks, what does your life really revolve around? But, Chip notes, he’s not asking what your life should revolve around! Because you know the answer to that question. And what does the evidence of where you invest your money and your time tell you about your priorities? Are they eternal?
In conclusion, Pastor Ingram exhorts:
“God calls all of us every day to keep reorienting ourselves around Him — because to do otherwise is to make that goal, activity, or person an idol. God and God alone is worthy of our highest affection. . . .
This calling is true all the time, but it especially hits home when our false sources of hope are threatened. In times like these you really need to know what’s on the other side of the wall between time and eternity. . . . When you have that vision, you can live through anything today with an unshakable source of joy and hope.”
Today’s question: What Scriptures help most when you feel headed for disaster? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: the October Short Meditation, “Unnumbered comforts to my soul”