Day 2156 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Philippians 1:21 NIV

We were watching Gladiator the other day and I heard my mom talking about it. It's obviously one of the coolest movies ever, but the message that she shared about it really hit me in a whole new way. "If you know where you're going, they can't hurt you." Wow! I've thought about that a whole bunch of times over the last couple of days and I absolutely love it because it's this ubiquitous truth that fits our faith perfectly!

When we're living for something eternal then nothing this world does can hurt us! The opinions don't sting anymore. The threats of violence don't send us running. The fear of being seen as an outcast or weirdo almost takes on this badge of honor. Basically what I'm saying is that when we are born again in Christ then life and everything in it changes and means something completely new.

This verse in Philippians is one of those that I always struggled with growing up. To die is gain? How is dying gain? As a kid death sounds scary! So to think of it as gaining something in some way just never made sense in my little mind. As I've gotten older and hopefully a little wiser (definitely debatable!) it makes sense now. 

My life is going to be lived for Christ. He is my purpose. Sharing His message is my goal. Being the good person He made me to be is my mission. And when my time is up then all of this worldly life gets left behind and I get to move on to an eternity of peace with my best friend. I get to wake up to a new existence where all the worry and fear is forever replaced with joy and celebration.

When we know what we're living for then this world can't hurt us anymore. When we're living for something so much bigger than ourselves then nothing this world does to us will ever be big enough to stop us or send us running away from Christ. It's the perfect example of that whole idea of having nothing to lose. We've already gotten to lose our old messed up lives and the new ones we've exchanged them for are lived for Jesus. The world can't touch that!

Living for God according to His will for our lives is good. Helping others find their way to Him is good. Sharing the Gospel and messages of love and encouragement is good. Not living in fear of earthly opinions or judgement is good. And when all of this is done, we get to spend the rest of forever with Him, and that's the best of all! Build your life on serving Him and you will have the peace of knowing what comes next after this life is through. And with that knowledge comes this powerful peace that no man can possible take away from us!

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