YOUR LIFE IS SHORT ~ eternal joy above in Christ JESUS alone

"What is your life?" -James 4:14 [KJV]

A short day, full of evils; a span long, replete with crosses. Each revolving day brings its troubles; each fleeting moment, its sorrows. ‘Yes,’ says a soul, ‘I am a living witness of this: I am a mark for the enemy to shoot his fiery darts at; against man he daily renews his attacks, constantly buffets, and is ever busy with his subtle devices. Each morning I rise, I am brought into the field to exercise my arms; or on the stage, to conflict with my enemies. Truly, I am almost worn and wearied out. What with a sense of indwelling corruptions, the plague of my heart, the attacks of Satan, the troubles of the world, want of the sense of my Lord’s love, and the workings of unbelief;—my life is one continued scene of sorrow and distress.’ 

Remember, for your comfort, your life is short: your rest shall be eternal and glorious. Consider what one sweetly says, “It is the great work and difficulty, and yet duty of a christian, to believe unseen and unfelt love, in and under well-seen and well-felt difficulties.” sometimes the Lord joins these together, as in 1 Thessalonians 1:6. “Having received the word in much affliction; with joy in the Holy Ghost.” Then, it is easy. But often the trouble is felt, while the love is hidden in the word. What is to be done in such a case? Faith can find love in the word of promise: receive it, fasten upon it, and live by it. 

Here opens a most delightful scene, a most glorious prospect! Here, lose sight of your life: it is swallowed up in that word, Ye are dead, your life is hid with Christ in God: Christ is our life (see Colossians 3:3, 4.) Never consider yourself, without Christ; nor your life, without His; nor His enemies, without His perfect victory over them, in your nature, for your person, and to your comfort and joy in Him. 

Now say, What is your life? You have lost all the glory and comfort of it in Adam: you find all restored, with infinite addition, to you in Christ. Therefore, whatever your feelings and frames may be, yet live by faith upon Him, above corrupt sense and carnal reason. This is a mystery unknown to the world. When you see professors following the pleasures of this life, seeking happiness from the gay scenes of vanity, you behold them turning their backs upon Christ, shewing the greatest contempt to Him; and, in effect, saying of Him, ‘The Lord, with all the treasures of His life and love, cannot make my life happy: I am forced to take up with the delights of the playhouse, and rant and revel in scenes of mirth and jollity.’ . . . From such a life—such a spirit—and such professors of Christ, good Lord! deliver us.

• I have a better life than this, 
• ‘Tis hid in Christ with God: 
• Let death this mortal body seize, 
• I have a sure abode.
• Yea, now I live, (for Christ’s my life) 
• I taste the joys of love; 
• And when I die, then ends my strife 
• I go to joys above.

 

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)