It hit me when I read it. It made me realize that the priority they have for what is important is not the priority that I have. That the battle they are fighting won’t be one that I fight. They are angry that plastic straws are being brought back and I am worried about the eternal salvation of my children.

I was sent a screenshot of an article that was posted on social media about plastic straws being brought back and all the comments that were under it broke my heart and made me realize that I have such a different perspective on life. It made me sad to know that the battles they deem as important will not matter when they take their last breath. They are focused on things of this earth yet my focus is on eternity. They are living for there here and now and I am living for the what’s to come. Will I always have me eyes set on the prize? Of course not. The pleasures of the world can so easily draw me in. It’s so easy to take my focus off of Him and put it on things that do not matter. I am often more like them than not but only by the grace of God can I have a hope that can’t be explained. Only by His grace do I wake up every single morning with breath in my lungs and a beating heart. Only through Him can I see my need for a Savior and this world is not it. If we are a good person then that’s enough. But what is it enough for? What is the purpose of this life if this is all there is? What happens when you take your last breath? When your heart is no longer beating and there is no breath in your lungs? Is that it? You were placed on this earth just to exist? Why choose kindness or love if your death is the end of it? Why does it matter what you do here and now if you’ll just be no more? If we stop and think about it, there shouldn’t be a set of rules to abide by if there is no Savior. Who is the standard that we follow? Why are some things okay to do but others not? Why do the majority of humans know that murder is wrong but others think there is no issue in taking a human life? If we are left to our own, look what we are left with. Death and destruction. Chaos and turmoil.

As a believer in Christ, knowing that this world is just a tiny speck in the whole realm of eternity, makes you have a perspective that these are not the battles we need to be fighting. What the world says is important is not what we as christians should be wasting our time on. If the world says it’s important then we should honestly stop and think…there is a reason we are being sucked into it. There is a reason it’s causing division and it’s probably not something we should even waste our time on. Are we as believers called to be good stewards of the world that God has created? Absolutely. We are called to take care of it and our possessions that He has given us but we are not called to make the earth an idol in our lives. From the smallest possession to the biggest but they should not be our main focus. Our eyes need to be set on Him and not putting things above Him. When are spending our time fighting battles that aren’t eternal, we take our focus off of Him and Satan wants us to be distracted. Why? Because when we focus on things that do not have any eternal value, he knows that we are wasting our time which means we are distracted and that is exactly what he wants. He wants us to be distracted. He doesn’t want us to be witnessing to others. He doesn’t want us to be speaking the truth about salvation. He doesn’t want us to share the love of God with the world. He wants us fighting battles that in the end, do not matter at all.

We, as Christians, are fighting in battles that have no eternal value and we need to stop fighting them. We are called to submit to authority as long as it doesn’t go against The Word of God. We are called to lay down our lives. Think of Daniel. He knew that he would die if he bowed down and prayed. He didn’t know the end of his story like we do. He knew that if he prayed to God, that he would be thrown into the lions den and he stilled prayed despite the outcome. Think of Radshack, Meshach and Abednego. They knew that if they refused to bow down to the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar, they would be thrown into the fiery furnace. They didn’t know God would save them yet they refused to bow. Only God gave them the strength they needed. They couldn’t have done that on their own so why do we choose to fight for things that aren’t compromising scripture? Why do we get so caught up in battles that we really don’t need to fight in?

Lord, through it all, with every breath I take, please keep my eyes on You and not things of this world. Apart from you I am weak and empty. Please give me eyes to see and ears to hear. To go where You lead and to stop putting the focus on things that are not eternal.