Make the most of your time

 

This week, with thunderstorms about, my cactus was flowering. They are beautiful flowers but only last for twenty-four hours as you see in the next photo. To some people this may seem like a waste, that God would arrange for this plant to be programmed to produce such beauty and that it would only last for such a very short time.

But that is how God saw fit to design flowers; few of them last long, some a

few days and possibly even a couple of weeks, but that is about the limit of their life. Their beauty, (even if short-lived), makes our environment more pleasant and bring a little extra joy into our lives.  This is the way God planned it; for example, in the animal kingdom all babies are beautiful and warm our hearts, and of course when it comes to human babies they are very attractive.   Indeed, I have often heard people say “Isn’t it a shame that they have to grow up”. Well “yes” and “no,” it certainly is a shame that they lose that ‘cuteness’, but ideally they should then grow to be delightful, loving, helpful human beings as God intended for all His Children to become.  I know that was His intention for us because He has made it very obvious that He wants us to be happy and enjoy life. For starters, He has designed a world for us to live in that is absolutely beautiful: There are these flowers everywhere, magnificent scenery, with mountains, snow, rivers, waterfalls, beautiful sunsets and lovely fruit and vegetables and all the necessary fibres to dress us comfortably and make us feel, and look, nice.

I know, we allowed selfishness and greed to enter in and disrupt God’s plan, but He is not one to take things like that lying down either. Instead, He has now given us the option of a fresh start if we are prepared to accept His forgiveness through Jesus sacrifice for us.  To reinforce that, and to make it easier for us to live the way that He originally intended for us, He also offers the fellowship and guidance of The Holy Spirit to those who have accepted His forgiveness and that is a colossal bonus, (Luke 11:13), because the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) is “Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control,” and those attributes can soon become part of our nature.  Also, Paul pointed out in a letter to the Philippian Christians in Chapter 4 and Verse 8: that we need to forget all the destructive rubbish that is trying to pollute our minds making us unhappy, and instead concentrate on things that are “Noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy.” There are stacks of things like that about, so let us enjoy

them, make the Angels happy, and become true Children of our Heavenly Father and therefore joint heirs with Christ for eternity (Romans 8: 17). We actually live in two worlds: Satan’s world of rubbish and deception and God’s world of Eternal life and love. We need to sort out which one we want to claim Citizenship in, (do it now if you haven’t already done so). It is a free choice.     Best wishes then as you decide.      Tom.