What’s the Point?
What’s it all for anyway?
The sacrifice, the obedience, the endurance, the following hard after Jesus.
Let’s be honest. Sometimes being a Christian is hard. Sometimes the race is just long and the roads we travel in our faith are more pot-holed than smooth. Sometimes the mountains we climb seem unending and the arrows of the enemy seem unyielding.
So, what’s it all for anyway?
Why all the effort?
“[8] Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, [9] for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. [10] Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. [11] Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him…”
2 Timothy 2:8-11 NIV
Here is what I have learned as I have walked with Jesus through some really hard times:
It is not all about me.
Yes, sometimes I can bring hardship upon myself. But quite honestly, even if I lived a perfect life and never again sinned or fell short of perfection, I would still live in a fallen and broken world. The only difference between me and the brokenness that often surrounds and permeates, is that I have a hope that is beyond my ability to manufacture.
I have a Savior who already paid the price for all the times I would fall miserably short. And His payment was more than enough. I am righteous. I am redeemed. There is nothing left to add to the grace that He provided – except perhaps my gratitude for it. Jesus said it best when He proclaimed, “It is finished.”
One of my favorite verses in Hebrews testifies to this very hope…
“For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
Hebrews 10:14 NIV
So again, I reflect upon the hard, the mess, the painful, and ask, “What’s the point?” If He has ransomed me, paid the price, and is faithful to complete the work He began in me then what is the purpose of the struggle?
If my place in eternity is secured, perhaps my footsteps through this life – the hard, the mess, and the painful places – are the very tools the Lord can use to proclaim hope to those who have none? His living Word, lived out in me.
Perhaps the “hard” has less to do with my sanctification as it has to do with my witness as I walk through that suffering?
Perhaps… it’s not all about me.
Perhaps your “hard” isn’t all about you, either.
If you and I belong to Jesus, we have been saved. We have been redeemed. Our future is secure in His hands. Our names are written upon those same hands.
So, what if the point of our lives, our days – whether hard or easy, beautiful or broken – is about bringing Him glory and pointing people to Jesus?
What if the point of our lives is to take all the good gifts He has given us and use them to make His Name famous?
What if the point of our lives is to bring the broken and lost to Jesus?
Oh, may we be a people who are more concerned with Jesus’s reputation and cause than we are with our own!
And THAT is the point. The hard, the messy, the painful…the joy, the gratitude, the beauty. For the cause of Christ – for His glory and the renown of His Great Name!
And in that glorious and noble pursuit, we can (miraculously) find the courage to walk out this life – the beautiful parts and the hard parts – for purposes that are greater than ourselves and a hope that has eternity in its sights.
The song I want to share with you today has taken my breath away and is about the very things I have been pondering. It is a new release from Kari Jobe and her new album entitled, The Garden. The song is called “The Cause of Christ,” and is written as a modern hymn. Don’t miss the words in the last stanza of the song…powerful….and the whole point. Enjoy and I pray you will be encouraged for your journey today.
With joy for the journey,
Sarah
Sarah’s heart and passion is to connect worshipers around the globe, with all their gifts and talents, and come before the Throne of God…together. She is a proud Army Chaplain’s wife and homeschool mom of 3 full-throttle kiddos. She and her beloved husband, Jeff, have been married for 21 years.
