The Life.

I want to live to die. Not too long ago, I had a revelation in regards to life. No matter what we do, how many facelifts, botox, makeup, age-defying stuff, working out, eating right, etc., we're gonna die. Death is inevitable. What am I doing with my time on earth? If I measure my actions to eternity and what it will mean then, what really matters?

It's so easy to get caught up in the daily routines. Work, family, children, school, sports, music, acting, etc. The moment when I am confronted to sin, tempted, my action then is what matters. God gives me the power to walk away, so what do I do when I'm tempted? If I take the moment to think of eternal consequence (good or bad), I think that it would be easier to walk away. Considering that we aren't tempted with things that are of no interest to us, it's never truly easy to just walk away. Sometimes it's easy to just entertain the idea for a moment, but you need to run.

The moments in life when it's been the hardest for me is when I decide that I won't act on the temptation, I'll just think about the "what ifs" and then I won't be sinning. How long can one play with fire before getting burned. But if you grab water and douse that flame and walk away you won't get burned. The power of Christ can put out any flame the adversary brings to you.

There was a time in my life when my wife and I were having a rough time in our marriage. When I was at work, I would constantly be bombarded with things that we said in arguments and bringing up arguments that had never happened. I would often entertain these thoughts and when I saw her, I would be angry from all these events (I'd say that at least half of them were from arguments that never occurred, other than in my mind). This would cause more friction and we'd be worse off than we were before.

There came a point when I was sick of this and needed to get away from it. I would say out loud, if I was working by myself, "Lord Jesus take captive my thoughts," whenever these thoughts would bombard me. After having to do this nearly incessantly for a few days, they weakened. I didn't crumble to those thoughts like I had before. The power of Christ's name can bring the enemy to his knees.

The adversary would then bring up more temptations and whatnot, but if I continued to pray to Christ for help and pray daily, He would give the power to overcome. In His Name is power. God spoke the Universe into existence. There really is more power in the Word and in verbal language than we tend to give credit for.

Advise my dad would often give me is this: If you are doing the right thing, you will be under attack. If you aren't a challenge to the adversary, why would he waste time attacking you. Not saying that the luke-warm have perfect lives, they are merely easy targets. The real strength will be used attacking the righteous. If Christ is in our lives, we have more strength than we tend to believe. We can change the world if we truly wanted to.

I know my calling and I'm moving toward it. I'm not going to allow myself to be turned to the left or right away from what God wants me to do.

Lord Jesus, I pray that You will give me the strength to not stray from Your direction in my life. Please fill me with Your Presence and guide my thoughts and words throughout today. Thank You for Your sacrifice. Please help me to live for eternity. I pray for Your continued direction and guidance. I love You, Lord.