1 Samuel 14, Psalm 100, Mark 11:12-26, 2 Corinthians 5

2 Corinthians 5:

Paul now gives us two corollaries that come from living, ministering, and working with the eternal in perspective: confident and evangelistic.

First, we are confident. This is because we who are Christians live with a combination of “groaning” and yet also confidence that comes from the “guarantee” of what is to come in heaven. We have an eternal house in heaven. So even if we groan in our earthly bodies, yet we have this eternal home still to come. We groan now, but because of the guarantee, we live now with a sense of hope and perspective and joy. Try today to cast your mind’s eye to the future. To the future with God. To the future in heaven. To set your hope on what is to come. And let that shape and frame how you look at your life, so that you live now with greater hope.

Second, we are evangelistic. This is because we know that eternity is coming and so we seek to tell other people about Jesus. “Since we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others.” We are compelled by Christ’s love to share that love of Christ. We no longer look at people just from a worldly point of view—how much they earn, where they are on the corporate ladder, their status. We look at them as people made in the image of God, lost without Christ, and therefore we share the message of Christ! “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Today, then, would you—because of the eternal perspective—take fresh confidence in how you live, that what you do for Christ has a point and a purpose? And would you also take fresh courage to tell other people about Christ, to be evangelistic?