What Will Last?

“For he [we] will never be shaken; the righteous will live forever.” Psalm 112:6

Do you have anything that will last?

If you visit any dump site you’ll discover lots of plastic bags among the refuge. We throw away used plastic bags, but we don’t get rid of them. Scientists tell us plastic we don’t recycle will be around for about 100 years, longer than most of us will be around. They’ll use the plastic we recycle to make more plastic with its own life cycle. In other words, plastic will probably last, in some form, forever, or for as long as mankind does.

What do you have, or what have you done that will last forever? We make temporal or eternal choices every day. Will your choices reflect a life of victory or a life of defeat? What will your loved ones and friends remember about you after you’re gone?

Beginning when my daughter was four I took her to church every Sunday. That habit lasted well into her teens. We had some of our biggest arguments over whether we ought to go to church every Sunday together or not. I made the choice that as long as she was with me we were going to church. If you asked her today (she’s 30 now) what she remembers about me when she was growing up, one of the things she would say is, “He insisted that we go to church every Sunday.” I have no doubts that she’ll remember that as long as she lives. The good thing about it is that every time she went (even when I had to drag her) she had fun and could talk about what she learned. I was building a foundation for her future.

What kind of foundation are you building for your children? For yourself? Is it a foundation based on God’s word or the standards of the world — work hard, play hard, climb the ladder of success, make as much money as you can, trust your children’s education to the schools?

If your foundation is on faith in God you will honor the Lord, and the Bible promises that when a man whose foundation is in the Lord, “his descendants will be mighty on earth; and the generation of the upright will be blessed.” Psalm 112:2

The one who possesses what will last forever draws their strength from God’s commands when our faith in Him is the center of our lives. We draw strength from the Lord by reading and meditating on the commands in His word every day.

We live out the reality of His word when we focus on the eternal. and “the generation of the upright will be blessed.”

Sometimes those blessings come in the form of material possessions or great wealth. But God’s purpose for those material blessings and wealth are not for us. God grants those material blessings to us so we can give to and bless others. That principle goes back to the church after which One Heart was founded in Acts 4.

Those who are blessed and those whose faith is in the Lord have a testimony that will outlive them.

However, if you measure your success by the stuff you’ve accumulated on earth, all that hard work won’t outlive you. But if you start living in God’s word, even the storms in your life will pass. We must look beyond the darkness to see the light that’s inside us. “Light shines in the darkness for the upright (the one whose faith and foundation are in the Lord)” V4. “He will not fear evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is upheld. He will not fear.” v8a. People will see his steadfastness and his upright character will be obvious to all.

The one whose character is centered on God’s word will be the person others see standing up to adversity. He will find answers for his battles in God’s word and his faithfulness. Battles wage against us constantly. If we allow God to work in us, He will fight those battles for us. He told the Israelites in 2 Chronicles 20 that, “the battle is not yours but mine. The Israelites watch God destroy the combined armies of several countries and the Israelites didn’t lift a finger. God will do the same for the one whose trust is in Him. So, face your battles. Don’t run from them. Trust what God says He will do, then sit back and watch God fulfill His promises.