We cling to what we cannot keep

We cling to material possessions that will rust, rot, or can be consumed by a fire or storm.

We dote on a house that will eventually decay – or has to be sold because the interest rates are too high, or we can no longer maintain it.

Eighty-five-year-olds undergo life-threatening medical operations in the hope of gaining a few years’ extension of life. No matter what our age we are all temporary. Who is able to predict the day they leave this world, unless by their own hand?

When we strive for riches we are trying to grasp the wind. We live in a world so uncertain, so fast-changing, that today’s rich man can tomorrow be living in a tent city – as some are in the United States right now.

On exiting Planet Earth a millionaire is just another statistic on a mortuary slab. He may have the most adorned coffin, the most impressive tombstone in the cemetery - but his body is as lifeless as all the others.

We are as impermanent as the morning mist over San Francisco Bay.

Nuclear destruction can occur anywhere at the push of a button located at least a thousand miles away.

Few like to think about death, but it can come as suddenly as a lightning strike. Yet God says death is not the end. The Bible tells us there is a judgment day, then either eternal life or the second death, depending on whether we have responded to Jesus the Saviour. He asks us: “What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

So is the Bible true? Most who believe it will say they’ve seen God’s hand on their life.

The promises of God ought to give us a different perspective on daily living. They are eternal, non-changing, rustproof, mothproof, not affected by anything. They are dependable. “I am the Lord, I changeth not.”

The sum total of our life at the end will not be what we have gained materially, but whether we have trusted and obeyed God.

Doesn’t it make good sense to put our faith in those promises of God? They are solid as Mount Everest; unchanging as the pounding surf; reliable as the rising sun; certain as night following day; worth more to us than all the gold, diamonds or silver this world can muster.

What does God promise?

For those who trust Jesus - sins forgiven and abundant life in this world: then on departure eternal life and a mansion in heaven. More immediate, He promises a divine daily helper in the form of the Holy Spirit.

Those are promises that no lottery win, no amount of earthly riches can obtain. It is the good news of the gospel for those who will believe.