What an exciting time of life!
Learning to drive,
Having ever-increasing independence,
Going out with friends,
Meeting new people.
Perhaps you are going to university or starting work! There are new freedoms, more money, maybe a student loan, or your first salary – the opportunities seem endless!
We have a tendency as young people to live inside our comfortable ‘Christian bubbles’. Going to meetings and conferences, socializing and having fun, shopping, gaming, travelling, dining out and dressing up. Perhaps golfing, playing football or rugby, watching TV, films and the endless online options – Netflix, iPlayer, YouTube and Facebook to name but a few.
Would you let the Saviour interject into your busy life?
‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me’, Matt. 16. 24.
What do you know about this?
Christ speaks again, ‘He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me’, Matt. 10. 38.
How does your life of ease compare with our rejected Saviour’s life? Can I plead with you to lay down the ‘toys of this world’, the time-devouring pleasures and pastimes, and go after Christ? He went to a cross for you. He gave His life because of your sin. Was this so that you could have a good time and spend your hours playing games? Was it so that you could continue to live a sheltered comfortable life?
‘The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again’, 2 Cor. 5. 14-15.
Let me be clear. You and I should have perished for our sinful rebellion against God. We deserved eternal punishment for our filthy self-righteous pride and sin. But Christ died for us. He has freed us and rescued us eternally. Think about that!
What does His death mean to you? Is it just something you give thanks for on a Sunday morning? His love should grip us. How can we live as though it was nothing?
How can you live for yourself in light of Christ’s love? My prayer is that you will take 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 15 as your motto – that from henceforth you will not live for yourself, but for Him who died for you and rose again.
One final word from our Lord; ‘Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest’ John 4. 35.
What our nation needs is a generation of young men and women who will answer the Saviour’s call to follow Him at any cost. A generation who will go out into our communities, our towns and our cities with the gospel of Christ, who will cross social, economic, cultural, and ethnic barriers because of Christ’s love.
Broken, hopeless men and women are living and dying all around us while we sit in our full homes and empty Halls with the gospel that they desperately need.
‘Lift up your eyes!’
