PASTOR’S CORNER: What are you living for?

Now this is a good question. It is the kind of question that makes us think and come to grips with what is truly the center of our lives. It causes us to think seriously about where we stand with God, and what role he plays in our lives. If we are honest and ask ourselves this question from our hearts, we will know what we are living for.

All of us are living for something! When we get up in the morning, what is the first thing that we think about? What comes to mind? When we are going throughout the day, what motivates us? What drives us to do what we do? If we had to sum up our life and our life’s meaning, what would it be? What are we living for?

Some folk are living for money. It is a consuming desire. They pursue the almighty dollar. They work overtime. They work when they don’t have to work. They work 16 hours a day, spending time away from their families or play the lottery hoping to strike it rich. They don’t enjoy life. They don’t have time for church, God, or anything else. It’s all about the money.

Now there’s nothing wrong with working overtime to get extra money to make ends meet or to have extra for a rainy day, but with some people it is a consuming desire. They just think money and the devil knows it. It blinds them and pulls them away from God.

Some people live for love from a man or a woman. They go from relationship to relationship. They run until they run out. Folk who has been married four, five, six, seven and eight times are proof. It doesn’t make sense!

Some live for material things. They are very materialistic. They are consumed with stuff. Some have become hoarders. It has taken over their lives. What are you living for?

Some parents live for their children. They build their lives around their children. They don’t want to hear anything negative about them and don’t believe anything negative about them. Their children can do no wrong.

Some girls live for a boy. Some boys live for a girl. Some husbands or wives live for their spouses. They build their lives around them. Some live for this present world — to party, let the good times roll, eat, drink, and be merry! It’s all about having a good time. It’s sad to say, that some live only for that next alcoholic drink. Some live for that next snort of cocaine. They have sold their soul for the next fix; and have lost their job. Some have lost their families and their dignity trying to get the high they got the first time but what are you living for?

This is what I want to ask those of us reading today.

Because if you think about it, it is one of the above — money, material stuff, a boy, girl, spouse, the kids that keeps some people awake at night. It is one of the above that stresses us out, giving us headaches. It is one of the above that stands between us and God. It’s why we can’t serve the Lord as we should and the devil will use one of the above, that with which we live for, to keep us from drawing near to God.

Think about it! What are you living for? Why do you get up in the morning? What do you live for during the day? What is it that motivates me? At the end of the day, what value was in what I did today? Community, something in this life pushes us to do what we do. What pushes you?

The next question is what if you did not have what you have to do what you do? What if that which you are living for now is taken away? What value is it toward eternity? What role will it play in eternity?

My friends this morning, when we make anything in this life for which we live. We are setting ourselves up for a fall and a hard landing when we build our lives AROUND material things, jobs, education, our children, spouses, or money. When we allow ourselves to be controlled by substance abuse and it causes us to act out of ourselves, neglect our families, turn our backs on everything we’ve ever known, and lose our self-respect, that can be a dark place.

When something consumes us it is the first thing that we think about when we wake up and the last thing we think about when we go to bed at night. I know, because I’ve been there; driven by sinful passions and waking up to chase a dream that I will never catch. The result is brokenness, destruction, depression and sometimes suicide. Folk don’t take their lives for no reason. They don’t lose their minds for no reason. Something drove them there. It was what they were living for. They lived for the wrong thing.

The one thing that will never fail, disappoint or frustrate us is Jesus Christ. Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us. The only way to true happiness, fulfillment and satisfaction is through Jesus Christ, the savior of the world.

Friends, sin will drive you to a place you don’t want to go! It takes your life, and the wages of it is death (Romans 6:23). The Apostle Paul had it right. He said, “I am crucified with Christ,” (Galatians 2:20). “For me to live is Christ,” (Philippians 1:21).”

What are you living for?