Having an eternal perspective can, and should, completely change the way we live our lives.
Joseph probably wondered why God allowed his life to take the course it did, his brothers to harm him & sell him into slavery. Why He allowed Potiphar’s wife to make false accusations that sent Joseph to jail. Why he had to wait in jail for years before he was remembered & called upon to interpret dreams. Even though he didn’t know the answers, Joseph continued to respond in faith and obedience to God. And when he was reconnected with the very brothers who had hated & harmed him, the end game was revealed. Joseph knew that God had been working through it all & for a greater purpose.
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Gen. 50:20
God is always operating with the “end” in mind. When we change the way we think & start filtering all of our thoughts and actions through an eternal perspective, we're allowing God to work through us at the moment for a much greater purpose than we can understand. Our choices will not always make sense to the world. When we choose to do God’s will & act in faith, not always knowing or understanding the why but trusting God’s faithfulness, He is working in that & it honors Him. We are so often able to look back and see how God was working through a situation/season even though we could not understand it at the time. He probably did it differently than we wanted, but it worked out better than we imagined. Through seasons of struggle or uncertainty, as we continue to seek God’s will & live with an eternal perspective, He is refining us & making us new, turning our hearts toward Him.
Let’s be challenged to choose obedience & faithfulness to our good Father, trusting that he is working for our good & the good of His children, whether or not we understand why. Like Joseph, let’s keep the end in mind – looking toward eternity with God beyond the broken world we are currently confined to. As we continue to live out our day-to-day lives here on earth, let’s remember that we know the end. Christ has defeated death & sin. When He comes again, true life will begin with Him for eternity; that is where we want to be. There are two outcomes: eternity with God or without him. Let’s choose to live with that end in mind, that glorious end, allowing God to work through us & change us to be more and more like Christ as we eagerly await His coming.