What Are We Living For?
The call to live for Christ in everything
“Oh! How should all hearts be taken with this Christ? Christians! Turn your eyes upon the Lord. “Look, and look again unto Jesus.” Why stand ye gazing on the toys of this world, when such a Christ is offered to you in the gospel? Can the world die for you? Can the world reconcile you to the Father? Can the world advance you to the kingdom of heaven? As Christ is all in all, so let Him be the full and complete subject of our desire, and hope, and faith, and love, and joy; let Him be in your thoughts the first in the morning, and the last at night.”
So said Puritan Isaac Ambrose, and I am sure most of us would agree, in sentiment at least.
But do we truly live our lives reflecting and revolving around this truth, that Christ is all we need and should be the ultimate object of our desires?
Do we live lives that declare Christ to be worthy of preeminence?
I imagine I am by no means the exception in finding myself too often caught up in the pleasures and pressures of this life to dwell on the preeminence of Christ.
If I desire to hold Christ closest to my heart and to seek Him above all else, and yet my actions so often relegate Him to a devotional time and a scattering of prayers throughout the day, I have to ask myself if this - the preeminence of Christ is my life - is really my greatest desire?
What am I really living for?
Living For Others
While living for others may sound like a noble life mission, when it takes priority over living for Christ, it becomes simply a snare of people-pleasing and performance that inevitably leaves you bitter, empty, and lost in the end.
You cannot escape this reality.
When you live primarily to please or impress others, allowing their expectations to dictate the course of your life and holding their approval supreme, you have essentially removed God from the throne of your life and handed sovereignty to another fallen, sinful, and finite human being.
It is not wrong to care what people think - in fact, it’s necessary to some extent to show love and respect to others.
However, it must always come second to pleasing God. With Peter, we must understand and embrace the fact that our highest duty is to “obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)
Pleasing God must be a higher priority than pleasing others.
His opinion of our lives is more important than anyone else’s. Although this is not an excuse for ignoring wise counsel or dismissing others’ opinions, it should be our primary concern.
If pleasing God and obeying him results in disappointing others or not meeting their expectations, we must still please God.
As Paul exhorted the Colossians, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” (Colossians 3:23-24)
If you are misjudged for serving Christ, ostracised and neglected, or simply misunderstood, so be it.
Is He not more than able to repay?
“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold[fn] and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29)
Let Him be the ruling power in your life, your supreme desire, and the one whose approval matters most to you.
Living For Ourselves
But if we are not living for approval and applause from our fellow man, all too often our thoughts and focus turn inwards, and we live for ourselves and our sense of achievement and fulfilment.
Oftentimes, our sense of where we want our lives to go is more of a deciding factor in our choices and the way we spend our time, rather than surrendering our future to God.
We live for ourselves, and when the chaos of our life breaks our plans and dreams, we ask why God would allow this pain instead of realising our life was never really ours to dictate and control in the first place.
We usurp the control of our lives and then crumble when He takes back control, as if our efforts to direct our lives were anything more than futile delusions.
We are not our own, yet how often do we forget?
How often do we attempt to snatch our lives and our plans from the hands of the One who created us?
Do we really live in light of the knowledge that our lives - our everything - is rightly owned by our Saviour?
Yet Scripture is clear: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
When how we feel is of more value to us than how we live and who we are serving, we are treading on very dangerous ground.
Yes, we can desire a sense of fulfilment, purpose, and achievement, but that must be found first and foremost in Christ, or we will end up as disillusioned and dissatisfied as the world.
As hard as it is in the moment, we must remind ourselves daily that our lives are not our own - that our actions, our choices, and our purpose are intrinsically destined to glorify the Christ who gave His very life to redeem us.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
As Christians, our identity is found in Christ, not our successes, failures, or aspirations.
He is who we live for.
Living For This World
This world has so much to offer.
And by this world, I don’t mean the world of sin, rebellion, and destruction, but simply this tangible world we live in.
There are so many experiences we can have, and they are blessings from our Father, yet here again, our focus so easily shifts from the Creator to His creation.
Too often, we are so caught up in living for this life and experiencing this world that we neglect to prepare for the next.
How often we need the reminder to pull our eyes from the attractions of this world and to look to Christ: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life - is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)
We are created to live lives of purpose, striving for holiness and running towards Christ with everything we have.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Yes, this life is to be enjoyed, and this world is to be explored and experienced, but that must come secondary to pursuing Christ.
He must be our greatest desire, strongest source of hope, and highest priority.
As Paul exhorts the Colossians, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3)
So yes, live and truly enjoy life, but do so in close communion with Him, eager to know and please Him above all else.
What Are We Living For?
It is so easy to become distracted by life, to be swept aside in the chaos of this world, and to live not for Christ but for things that can never truly satisfy.
But when we live like this - as I have experienced time and again, and will doubtless struggle with until the day I see Him face to face - nothing this world offers can truly satisfy.
Everything this world offers inevitably leaves us empty because we were created to worship God, and until He is Lord of our lives, we can never be truly complete.
As Augustine poignantly wrote, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.”
We will always wrestle with the temptations of life and the desire to make ourselves or other things the guiding force of our lives.
But, as redeemed children of God, we must pull our hearts and our minds back to the truth that only Christ can satisfy and only He has the authority to determine the course of our lives and rightfully demand our full worship.
We must live for Him.