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Our Best Life Isn't Meant To Be Here on Earth

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I’ve grown tired of hearing people trying to sell Jesus as a fix-all product to make your life better. Jesus is not a product. He is the living and resurrected God.

Too often you hear about the “circle hole in your heart” and trying to fill the hole with the square peg of money, power, importance, relationships, sex, drugs and rock and roll doesn’t work, so that’s why you need the circle peg of Jesus to fill your heart.

The problem with this is that it gives people new to the faith the illusion that once you get Jesus in your life that everything will be perfect, and that just simply isn’t true.

If you were to get a room full of Christians and ask them to raise their hand if they’ve never had a bad day since accepting Christ, I guarantee that not one single person would raise their hand. Why? Because Jesus isn’t the ultimate fix to everything on this earth. He’s the ultimate fix to everything in eternity.

Jesus didn’t atone for our sins and die for us just so that we could have a perfect life here on earth. The purpose from the very beginning was heaven.

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Our best life isn’t meant to be here on earth, its meant to be in heaven with God.

We often hear about comfort, and how if your life isn’t comfortable then something is wrong. Frankly, I don’t want to be comfortable. Because if I’m comfortable I’m not doing anything.

God didn’t mean for our lives to be comfortable, He meant for them to be a testament to His glory and power, and it’s kind of hard to do that if you’re too busy being comfortable.

I recently heard a talk from Donald Miller where he talks about conflict. He is making the point about how conflict is from God in an effort to strengthen us and mold us to His purpose, and he said something that shook me.

He said, “God will intentionally bring conflict into your life, or let me rephrase that a different way: God will make you feel things that you do not want to feel, and He will keep those feelings with you no matter how hard you want to wish them away because He loves you.”

Does that sound like a product to fix everything in our lives and make it perfect? No, it sounds like a Father who wants us to learn endurance and faith.

In James 1:2. ESV, it says to “count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” Or in 1 Peter 4:13 where it says, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”

Do you see the word “comfort” in there? No, because God didn’t intend for us to be comfortable, and I’m tired of people trying to sell Jesus off as a comfort product.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a peace and comfort that comes with being in a relationship with Christ, but that doesn’t make life itself easier. It makes it more bearable because you have the Creator of the universe walking hand in hand with you and encouraging you.

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Jesus will fix all of the problems in our lives when we’re in heaven at the marriage feast of the Lamb and we are forever united with Him. That is why we have hope.

If you want to make Jesus a product, make Him a product of hope and relationship, not some magical problem solver who will eliminate all conflict from your life.

In fact, if you’re walking with God you will probably have MORE conflict because the world is against the things of God. We should yearn for conflict, because it’s just another opportunity for God do something great.

If you’re sitting here and thinking to yourself  “there’s no conflict in my life,” then maybe you’re not where you need to be.

Get in the conflict. God didn’t give us the “comfy pajamas of God”, He gave us the full armor of God.  Let us change our attitudes and thoughts on conflict, and never let the presence of conflict convince us that God doesn’t love us. Let it convince us that He loves us all the more.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13, ESV)

This article appeared originally on jarrodterry.com.

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Jarrod Terry is a follower of Christ, husband to Amber, father to Ellie, stepfather to Kade, high school teacher, obsessive note-taker, stressed out sports follower, dog lover, movie nerd, book reader, sometimes outdoors guy, sometimes writer.
Birthplace
Memphis, TN




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