Recently I had the amazing opportunity to go on a mission trip to Siguatepeque, Honduras. My team and I facilitated a “Spiritual Emphasis Week” where we discussed the armor of God with the students of La Providencia, a pre-K through 8th-grade school. It was incredible
to watch the life change God did in each of the kid’s hearts, not only in their hearts but in mine as well. Thank you to all who supported and prayed for me on that trip; God truly used your support to make a difference in the hearts of so many. It’d be impossible to share everything I learned from this trip in one post, but I’d like to share with you one quote that challenged me a lot and falls right in line with the idea of this blog.

“Only one life, ’twill soon be passed. Only what’s done for Christ will truly last.”

– Unknown

This quote was the topic of many of my conversations on my trip. It demonstrates what it means to live INTENTLY. To live intently is to live with full focus directed towards one goal. The one goal for us as Christians is to live in light of what Christ did for us; to bring glory to Him and to enjoy Him forever. We need to live with crazy faith for God. This does not mean, “do anything and everything that is big and noticeable as long as it seems like a good thing to do”. If we try living a life focused solely on doing for God, we will wear ourselves out and never experience the peace of enjoying Him. Living with crazy faith means listening for God, trusting Him, and obeying His lead. Sometimes His lead is calling us to do something big and noticeable like selling all you have to go live in a third world country. Yet other times God calls us to simply stay and live a “normal” life; which is just as big and crazy as the alternative! Think about it, in both scenarios you are listening to someone you cannot physically see and trusting that He will bless you because of your belief and faith in Him. Living with crazy faith means to be intentional in every decision you make, big or small. Jesus was the ultimate example of this.

Throughout the entirety of Jesus’s life, He lived intently focused on the purpose the Father had given Him. Jesus, being God incarnate, had the power to never stray from His purpose, even when brutally persecuted on the cross. He persevered through every trial because He knew the joy in store for Him: to be seated at the right hand of the Father, being restored to His rightful position as God the Son. The author of Hebrews spells out for us how we can live intently for eternity as Jesus did.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”. – Hebrews 12:2, NIV

To Live Intently For Eternity, our focus must be set on Jesus, because He is our forerunner and intention of our faith. He set the ultimate example of endurance in the faith and showed us that there is greater joy found in our eternal reward. The author of Hebrews goes on to say that when we keep our focus on Jesus, we will not grow weary nor lose heart, and we can follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

“Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.” – Hebrews 3:1, NIV

As believers, we have been given a calling, to proclaim Jesus fearlessly as the Son of God and Savior of the world. To pursue this we must fix our thoughts and eyes on Jesus. He will continue to make known to us our purpose in His marvelous plan. We must listen, trust, and obey His calling on our lives to live a life that lasts. Through a life intentionally focussed on eternity, we can find joy in the glory we bring to God.

“But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it-not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it-they will be blessed in what they do.” – James 1:25, NIV

L.I.F.E. – – – Live Intently For Eternity

Life is not about living for ourselves, it is about living, earnestly, in light of what He did for us.