Set Your Affection on Things Above

 

Let us love, and sing, and wonder, let us praise the Savior’s Name!

He has hushed the law’s loud thunder,

He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame:

He has washed us with His blood, He has brought us nigh to God.

 

Let us praise and join the chorus of the saints enthroned on high;

Here they trusted Him before us, now their praises fill the sky;

“Thou hast washed us with Thy blood, Thou art worthy Lamb of God!”

                                                                                             

 -preacher John Newton

 

 -------O-------



SET YOUR AFFECTION ON THINGS ABOVE

 

     “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.  When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” -Colossians 3:1-2 [KJV]

 

     Men that are in the valley of poverty, or disgrace, or pain, think that if they were at the top of the hill of prosperity and fame, they would finally enjoy the happiness that so long has eluded them.  Those who dwell in the bottom think if they could get up to such a mountain, that is, attain a goodly measure of riches, honors, delights and carnal pleasures, then their expectations of lasting joy would finally be realized.  At last, they think, their problems would be over; then, at long last, they would experience contentment and satisfaction.  

 

Now we would do well to remember that Solomon had gotten to the top of such a hill.  He had everything of this world’s goods and pleasures that his heart could desire and yet, having arrived at such a pinnacle and seeing so many others scrambling and laboring so hard, in fact, riding on one another’s necks, and pressing one another to death to climb the mountain, he seems to speak to them and this is what he says.  “Sirs, you are all deceived in your expectations!  I see the efforts and pains you take to get up to this place, thinking that when you finally arrive you shall at last achieve your goal of real happiness and contentment:  but let me remind you that I am before you at the top of the hill.  I have treasures, and honors, and pleasures in great variety and in tremendous abundance, more than you could ever imagine and this is what I have discovered.  I find the hill full of quagmires instead of delights, and so far from giving me satisfaction, it causes much vexation [striving after vanity]." (see Ecclesiastes 2:11).  

 

Be advised, therefore, to spare your pains, and spend your strength for that which will turn to more profit; for, believe it, you do but work at the labor in vain if you seek to find true happiness in the things of this world. “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 12:8).  “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” -Matthew 6:19-20

 

-copied and edited

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