Articles
The Future: How to Prepare
The perspective that comes with age
I’ve been a senior three times in my life: a senior in high school, a senior in college, and now I’m simply a senior.
Once our family visited a congregation where we filled out a visitor’s card with these options: child, Jr. High, Sr. High, 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50+.
Many of us are in that last category—and have been for quite some time. How should we feel about it?
First, can’t we be grateful that God has allowed us to live this long? Many obituaries I see in the paper are for those far younger than I.
Second, shouldn’t we feel an increasing sense of the preciousness of the time remaining? It’s true that the 50+ category may last longer than any of the other age brackets, but we don’t know that it will.
“As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10 NASB).
“. . . 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” (James 4:14).
Soon it is gone, wrote the Psalmist. Just a vapor, says James.
We speak of longevity, but never shortevity. Perhaps we should.
And third, shouldn’t we be preparing diligently for what lies beyond? “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
The two stages
The future for each of us can be divided into two parts:
Future: Part I is whatever time remains for us in this world.
Future: Part II is eternity.
When we die, Part II begins. Part I is temporary. Part II is forever.
Part II is dependent on Part I. How we spend the first part determines how we spend the second (Romans 2:1-
11; 2 Corinthians 5:10). We have a choice.
Satan seeks to distract us with the “worries and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14). God calls us to
raise our sights and make wise choices (Colossians 3:1-2).
“The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John
2:17).
What it means to do God’s will
It means trusting in the Son He sent to be our Savior (John 8:24; 11:25-26).
It means turning in repentance from doing our own will to doing His (Acts 17:30-31).
It means being united with Christ in baptism (Acts 2:38; 22:16; Galatians 3:27).
It means remaining faithful to the end (Hebrews 3:6. 14; 10:35-39; 12:1-3).
“. . . to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:2).
