"The Cheerful Life"

 "Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?" (Ecclesiastes 3:22 KJV)

  "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen." (Hebrews 11:1-3 NLT)

 For this portion of Scripture, it might take some time to understand what we are looking at, because this is more about the looking at where you are at, compared to where you really want to be, in a strange and interesting side of looking at it. Isn't that the normal Christian's life? 

 I have thought about this many times throughout my walk with the Lord; as I suspect many others have given thought: Will there be a welcoming committee in Heaven when I get there? Did my life here make any difference for the better in anyone's life? 

 Maybe it's just me, but as I shared before, sometimes I feel that many things I did ended up like discarded film on the editing floor! This happens because we tend to observe the bad things we do, more than we cherish the good. You can blame that on remorse or conviction; but if we are truly cleansed from all of our sins, then we should focus more upon our pure relationship with God, and less about things of the past. 

 Everyone makes mistakes, because there is really no one who was perfect, except Jesus! What He did when He took our punishment was horrific and took on every single pain that we suffer: every kind of affliction, every kind of sickness, every brutal act that we can think of, He suffered for it all! 

 People that don't know any better can look at that, thinking it was such a shame, saying, "How could God allow such a thing to happen?" A lot of things happen in our lives that make us wonder the same thing...

"You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God." (1 Peter 2:4-5 NLT)