You Can't Take It with You But You Can Send Things Ahead

 May 16, 2024

Thursday

I have changed the way I travel. I have always packed too much. Most of the things I pack never see the light of day on the journey. The problem is that I am trying to leave to go somewhere else by taking all that I already have with me. I can't do that.

A new journey causes us to look forward to what we will see and do in a new place. We may expect that we will come back to our old place after the journey is over. That is not the case when we leave this world. We won't be coming back to what we left behind.

And we can take none of the things we have here with us. We come into this world with a body but we leave it without our bodies. The moment of our departure will reveal how little the things in this world have meant. The only thing of value will be those whom we will leave behind. Yet, we will see them again if they have trusted in Christ.

That doesn't mean that there isn't anything in heaven waiting for us. We send ahead the works done by the power of the Holy Spirit which God prepared for us before the beginning of time. They are ours if we continue in faithfulness to the Lord. They can be lost if we don't. In either case, we won't lose our destination for heaven has been assured to those who trust in Christ but the rewards we send ahead can be disqualified if we are not faithful.

The key is knowing that you are packing to go on this journey all of your life. Instead of checking the bags at the airport, you are sending them ahead. Just like your bags, they can get lost. However, they are not lost because of the negligence of someone else. They are lost because of our negligence in remaining faithful to our Lord.

This is why the Apostle Paul presses on to his upward call. He knows that he can be just as unfaithful as anyone else. He knows he can lose all that he has sent ahead. He focuses on his relationship with the Lord. He focuses on what lies ahead. He leaves that which lies behind. He writes:

Philippians 3:12–16 (NASB 2020) ¹² Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Therefore, all who are mature, let’s have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you as well; ¹⁶ however, let’s keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

None of us has attained perfection. We strain forward to come into a day of glory.