What It Is Not

We often talk about what living for God is, but we sometimes miss what it isn't.

It isn't a horserace.
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." James 1:12
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." Matthew 10:22

It isn't a walk in the park.
"I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 1 Corinthians 9:26-27

It isn't a beauty review.
"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquaninted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Isaiah 53:3-4
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Romans 12:1

It isn't a life of leisure.
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."
1 Corinthians 15:58


©2006 Doug Ellingsworth