To live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Life. What is your purpose? Is is to be the CEO of your company in say 20 years? Is it to be the next NFL quarterback? Is it to be a teacher or maybe a police officer? Or is life just possibly meant to be lived for something so much greater? Take a moment and think about this… Are your motives in life for your advantage, your own personal gain or are all of the things you do in life for Christ and others?

God’s love is transforming. He must be at the center of your life because when he is, you discover your purpose in life. You weren’t created to be ordinary but extraordinary. When you realize this, your world will be flipped upside down. John Piper puts it best when he says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

Living a life all for Christ is a sacrifice. “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) God doesn’t ask for part of us, he wants all of us. We must die daily of our own desires. The thing is though, we are the one’s who must choose. Will we choose to lets say live a “radical” life or are we going to just go through the motions? “as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:20,21) Here in Philippians we hear Paul’s cry for us to not be ashamed of our faith. Through Christ, we have an unstoppable confidence. Our relationship with Christ should be such a tight bond that in all that we do in life we honor him.

And there is a beautiful thing that happens when we fall in love with the Lord. His desires become ours. We begin to see people in a whole new way. “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3,4) We should never do anything in vain or just because it is the “Christian thing.” “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

My prayer for your life and mine as well is this, that we fall so madly in love with God that he becomes the center of all that we do in life. May his desires be ours. May he break our hearts for what breaks his. May we see the world around us with his eyes. May we love others genuinely. Some may call this a “radical” way to live life, but is this really “radical” or is this just the life God desires for us to live? You know like what if this was his original plan after all? Life is not at all about us. We have a much greater purpose. So, are you going to rise up and do something?

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him,” (Philippians 3:7-9)