The story is told of a man driving down a country road with an employee. When they passed a cemetery, the boss asked if the employee would turn around and go back. He asked a worker if he could get down into a freshly dug grave. He climbed down, laid on his back, looked at the clouds and blue sky for a minute and said, “I have been living for all the wrong reasons.”  He got up and drove back to the office. The employee said that his boss was never the same. 

The Apostle Paul warned Timothy that avoiding a shipwreck of his faith involved fleeing captivating desires, pursuing the things of God, fighting the fight of faith and taking hold of eternity. 

We live in a world that has NOTHING that is capable of fulfilling the deepest desires of our lives. As long as we think we can be totally satisfied HERE, we will not live in anticipation of heaven.

Author and theologian C.S. Lewis said it well: “If I find in myself desires which nothing on this earth can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” 

When God intervened in your life and called you into a relationship with Him, it changed the destiny of your life. Shift your grip from earth to heaven and you will discover an urgency to flee, pursue and fight. 

Just as sailors of old set their course by the stars, so a good hold on eternity sets your earthly course. Without that grip, you are vulnerable to being drawn off course by the world’s counterfeits.   

The apostle Paul urged his readers: “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3 NASB) 

Serious about avoiding a shipwreck of your faith? Don’t settle for drifting in your relationship with God. Take action: Flee, pursue, fight and hold!

Tom Petersburg, www.catapultministries.org