Realising Longevity (1)

This will be the first blog entry on the importance of longevity in our faith, keeping going, and how this manifests itself in our daily lives...

Recently God has been speaking to me about the long term, speaking to me about what may happen in later than a year's time, later than this current season of life I'm in. I am studying in Bradford at the moment until the end of June at the Abundant Life Church's Leadership Academy. It has been a fantastic course so far, and the end is rapidly approaching. The end of seasons often catch us out a bit don't they! We can happily be stuck into what is happening with us now in our worlds, when suddenly we hit the end. Whether the end of studies, the end of the year, the end of a job contract, the end of a holiday or end of a GAP year. Some of us are suddenly surprised when we come to the end of an era in our children's lives as we pack them off to school or university and find ourselves in an empty house for the first time in years! We all come to the end of things periodically in life, but how many of us come to these ends with a sense of purpose, a sense of completion and a sense of confidence in the next part of life? I'm afraid to think that unfortunately the answer is 'not many of us'. Generally, we tend to end up in places and situations by accident, by 'default' and this is a real shame, as it is something that is easily avoided. Our ultimate destination as Christians has been set, and finalised. This is an awesome fact, but there's so much to happen before all that. In the great commission, Jesus sent us out to the world to make disciples of all nations, this was not any means a task to do now and then when we remember last weeks church sermon. This is a call to have a lifestyle declaring the awesome news of Christ whilst we are here, not just sitting around waiting for God to 'beam us up' to heaven like a science fiction movie.

I have been driven to declare a truth over my own life in the last couple of weeks, that shall have eternal effects. It is a declaration that says "I'm in this for life God. Where other things crumble, other things fail, where I may fail in other things, my love for you and your desires will never cease. I will follow you forever, no matter what."

Easy to say, but tough to live up to. As local churches may split, or fail, as other followers may fall away, are you sticking still? Is your stake in the ground for life?

I'll stop for now, and write some more around this subject at a later time. But I shall certainly keep making that declaration to God each day, determined to stick by him, no matter what.