Message summary: In the last two messages we have written about the vital importance of maintaining a tight grip. But today let us also consider a tremendous application in life in keeping a loose grip! When we focus on the things pertaining only to this life our inner peace quickly diminishes. Frankly we would be driven to deep despair if we placed our hope in seeing this world's problems solved politically!

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"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

In the last two messages we have written about the vital importance of maintaining a tight grip, using football as an illustration. But today let us also consider a tremendous application in maintaining a loose grip! Let me explain.

Larry Burkett had a longstanding, fruitful ministry concerning a Biblical view of financial stewardship that many in our generation benefited from. I went to a meeting where he spoke near the end of his long battle with cancer. He was very ill and speaking was a major effort for him in his physically compromised condition.

He shared the interesting perspective of having a terminal illness and how it had changed his life. Eight years earlier he had been diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer that is virtually incurable. He shared that, of the 73 people who had been diagnosed with the cancer and were in a medical study with him, 72 had already died. How's that for a dark cloud to live under! Larry passed on about 6 months after this meeting in July of 2003.

We are all terminal as far as our physical bodies are concerned. Most of us are indefinitely terminal; that is, we have no idea of when we will die and generally assume that our death is far off; that we will live to a ripe old age.

But a diagnosis of a terminal disease places a definite finality on our physical condition. This is what Larry meant when he shared how his disease had changed his life, living with this perspective from day to day.

Of course in reality this is the perspective we should always live with. Not in a morbid, negative sense but it should motivate us to keep a loose grip on the perishable and a tight hold on the imperishable. As we feed on the Word faithfully our spiritual appetite will be growing and our affections for heaven will be growing as we anticipate our face to face meeting with Jesus as we finally behold Him in all His glory. Just keeping a vision of that glorious moment in our hearts today will deeply impact our attitude in all that we process this day. Paul writes, "Our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20).



In the daily text the Apostle Paul shares of the perspective we should be living with. I would sure like to give an exposition of these three verses phrase by phrase but then this devotional would be really long! Essentially he's describing a loose grip by contrasting the visible (physical) which is temporary with the invisible (spiritual) which is eternal.

I am particularly intrigued by the phrase "so we fix our eyes." This translates a Greek word that is in the present active meaning "to fix one's gaze upon, to concentrate one's attention upon." That is sure the outlook in which we want to live our lives and when we do so we experience the inner peace that is our inheritance in Christ. But when we focus on the things pertaining only to this life our inner peace quickly diminishes. Frankly we would be driven to deep despair if we were to give any hope in seeing this world's problems solved politically!

There's a wonderful description of this outlook in the Faith Chapter in Hebrews, initially written to encourage persecuted believers, that is so illustrative of this "loose grip" that we want to conclude with.

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them" (Hebrews 11:13-16).



Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, with great anticipation I am looking for a city with an eternally strong foundation, a home in the heavens not made by human hands. Help me to live as an alien here on earth since the benefits of my citizenship in heaven is of far greater worth than the benefits of my citizenship here in this country below. Keep me tightly holding onto Your promise of the heaven yet to come so that I will loosely grip the temporal that is only for the here and now. I cling to this great promise repeated throughout the Bible so that it gives me a proper perspective in the way I am to live as a stranger here on earth. Amen.

"This Is Not Where I Belong"  Video   Building 429  (Lyrics quoted in today's message)  Their name is derived from Ephesians 4:29, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

"Redeemed"  Video  Big Daddy Weave

"Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus"  Video  Paul Baloche

"I Lift My Eyes"  Video  Laura Story  Powerful song. The instrumental intro is especially outstanding.

"One For The Road"  Daily teaching by Richard Dresselhaus

We met Richard and his wife Elnora last fall during a trip to San Diego. We have a mutual friend. He has a daily (7 day a week!) teaching message that is consistently helpful that he emails. I assisted him and his wife Elnora in setting up this blog.

I benefited from his teaching long ago in a weekly magazine that he periodically submitted articles to. It was such a privilege to meet him in person and see a model for using one's retirement years fruitfully.