JULY 26 – WE MAKE IT OUR AIM!

“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him” (II Corinthians 5:9).

Right from the day on which Paul the Apostle was taken by Christ in the street of Damascus, he pleased Christ and dedicated to live for Christ. While writing about this to the church of God in Corinth, he says, “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to Him” (II Corinthians 5:9). As a reason, he writes in the next verse, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (II Corinthians 5:10).

Your life will not end with death. After death, one has to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. While on earth, the life you lead should be pleasing to God and should be faithful and perfect. Only then you could receive the crown of life and eternal dwelling while standing before Christ’s seat of judgment. So, always do what is pleasing to Him.

Once, a pastor was in prison in a Communist country. He was unable to tolerate the sufferings there. His heart began to slide. One day the prison official told him, “Why should you unnecessarily undergo so many sufferings? Two women are here in the prison cells and we will release you from the prison if you can shoot them down.” Though he hesitated in the beginning, he accepted the offer and took the gun in his hands.

When the two sisters were brought before him, it was shocking to know that both of them were previously led to Salvation by the same pastor and were members of his church. They told the pastor, “Pastor, you might have come to this decision in the midst of your sufferings. You introduced us to Christ and now you have taken the gun to kill us. We will not deny Christ even if we die. We request you to come back to the love of Christ at least after killing us. Be pleasing to Him. Please do not slide down.”

The pastor mercilessly killed both of them. He wished that after killing those women, he could lead an independent life but what happened was different. As he shot down those women, the next moment, the prison officials took out their guns and shot him down. He did not even have a chance to repent for his sins. Dear children of God, life in this world is only one. Let that one be pleasing to God and a loving one to Him.

To meditate: “For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8).