Faith - Living for Another Age

This week I heard the phrase, "Faith is living for another age."

That, along with some truths the Lord is teaching me these days, has been very helpful to me related to how to live in faith in the daily arena of life.

If living by faith means to be living for another age (i.e., the age to come in which the Lord Jesus will rule on earth with the saints), then there are some obvious implications to this. I'll present one of them, but there are others that the Holy Spirit will quicken to you.

Living for another age ties in well with Jesus' words in Matthew 6 when He exhorts His own to make the kingdom of God and His righteousness our priority. Because the "kingdom of God" refers to the rule of Jesus on earth after this age, then Jesus was clearly saying that we are to be focusing on the kingdom to come and ordering our lives with that reality as top priority.

If it's true that in the age to come, we will be ruling with the Lord Jesus in His government on earth (and I believe Scripture is very clear on this), then all that we are about now should be to prepare for that rulership. Our own discipleship now, as well as the discipling that we do of others, is all about being trained for governing in the age to come; that training is basically a training in becoming like Him and operating as He does.

In Mattthew 6 Jesus speaks of two competing allegiances/masters: God and money. In essence, He is saying that His followers cannot be consumed with ensuring their temporal well-being in this age and be focused on Him and His kingdom at the same time. Someone recently defined "seeking" as groaning and interceding and seeking for living understanding of His kingdom. In order to really do that, we can't focus primarily on ensuring our financial future; there just isn't enough time and emotional energy to do both. Although we need food and clothing for this age, we are not to spend our energy primarily on getting those things and on trying to control our future. Jesus said that the "pagans" live that way but we are not to; instead He says that our heavenly Father, Who knows we have need of these things, will provide what we need in this age if we'll orient our life around preparing to rule and training others to rule in the age to come.

And so faith is to choose to give priority to God's kingdom, His rulership over the earth after this age. There are many practical implications to this in daily use of time and energy, and I'm finding that walking this way is leaving me with less and less control over my life. And that's the point: I can't focus on having my future under control and prioritize the coming Kingdom! Keeping my life in this age as my priority (under control) makes me near-sighted, opening the door to greed, and greed motivates me to protect myself; as a result, I can't function in faith and love as the Lord does.

I would encourage you this week to ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you can be living for the age to come in practical choices throughout the day. He deals with each of us uniquely and wants to help us live with His priorities. He is the Helper! Holy Spirit, You Who are the very Spirit of Jesus who lived and walked in perfect faith and love, incline us to Your priorities; grant us the inclination to choose Your kingdom in the daily choices and the grace to start over again and again when we fail. Thank You, dear Lord, for Your great mercy and goodness!