“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. (1 Corinthians 10:23-24)
I would that all men at this hour abounded in almsgiving, but specially those who are followers of the loving Jesus. Regard your transactions from the standpoint of eternity.
Weigh what you do, not as it may be thought of by men of the world, but as it will be judged by yourself when you behold in the heavenly country the face of Him you love! I do not want you to have to say when you come to die, “I have had large possessions, but I have been a bad steward.
I have had a competence and I have wasted my Master’s goods. All I have done with my wealth was to furnish my house well, perhaps to buy expensive pictures and to allow myself luxuries which did me more harm than good.”
I hope, on the contrary, you will have to say, “I am saved by Grace, alone, and that Grace enabled me to consecrate my substance and put it to the best uses. I can render up my stewardship without fear. I did not live for the fleeting life which is now over, but for the life everlasting.”
Brothers and Sisters, some men spend so much upon themselves and so little for the Lord, that they seem to me to eat the apple and give Christ the parings! They hoard up the flour and give the Lord a little of the bran.
The Apostle means, when he says, “lay hold on eternal life,” (cf. 1 Timothy 6:12) get beyond today and tomorrow. Leap out of this month and this year. Live for the future; for eternity. Live not as insects that die in a day, but as men that live forever.
This life is as a prick made on paper by a pin—it is too small a thing to compare with the everlasting future. The for- ever, whether of misery or bliss, dwarfs this life to nothing.
Charles Spurgeon, At the Master’s Feet [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005], May 22. The entire sermon from which this devotional was taken is here:
http://www.spurgeongems.org/vols31-33/chs1946.pdf, accessed by Ken Silva 5/24/14.