How do you direct your hearts?
Look at this line a guy named Paul wrote to some people living in Thessalonica, Greece…sometime in about the 1st century A.D. He said, “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.” Notice two key words: love and patience. These two attributes of God are found in just about every passage in the Bible. And considering how we humans seem to have a natural tendency to wander away from both attributes, it’s a wonderful, beautiful thing to know our Creator doesn’t. Isn’t it?
Or maybe you disagree that God exists…let alone this love I’m talking about.
If you’ve never read any quotes from Blaise Pascal, let me encourage you to do so. Of course, if reading quotes by a mathematician from a few hundred years ago ain’t your cup of tea, then you might yawn and move on. But if you did, you’d be missing out on some valuable insights. One, in particular, I like is where he likens your choice to believe or not believe in God to a wager. He says wagering on the matter isn’t an option. In other words, you WILL make a choice. Either you will believe in God…or you won’t. And Pascal says that it’s a pretty lousy bet to wager against God’s existence. I couldn’t agree more.
I believe in God.
To be completely clear…I believe in the one true, living, loving God of the Bible. I’ve staked (or wagered or bet) my whole life on the truth of His existence. And if I end up being wrong, I will have lost nothing…after all…what would there have been to lose…in the bigger picture?
However, if you say there is no God. And you’re willing to stake (or wager or bet) your whole life on it…if you’re wrong, you have everything to lose…in the bigger picture. See, the bigger picture is eternity. Of course, eternity only exists if God exists. If we’re all simply “carbon-based matter”, then nothing really matters because it’s all gonna burn out and die eventually. No fire can burn forever.
Your earthly heart will only beat a finite number of times, and then you’ll die. And if it’s only electricity or gamma rays or some sort of “feeling” that holds your life together, those will also wind down. Perpetuation of the species would only lead to an increased number of non-beneficial mutations until the species (us) would die out. And what was it all for? Who cares?
But you are not merely the sum total of the atoms, molecules, and cells that make up your body. There is incredible information coded into every cell in your body. That code needed (and has) a coder. That coder is your creator. That creator is God. I’m staking my life and my eternity on it. I believe I’ve made the wisest bet…a sure thing you might say. And I’m doing what I can to direct your hearts into the love of God. And I’m trusting in the “patience of Christ” to keep me going. Here’s how you can do the same…
- Discover that Jesus was/is God in the flesh, and…
- that He came to earth to make a way for you to live forever, and…
- all you need to do is believe and trust in Him and His love
Stay tuned,
Tony