Heavenly Father, so often I lose sight of eternity. Often my mind dwells on the momentary. In an instant I am captured by the temporal, and the vast expanse of eternity dims. As looking through a crack in the door, I see but a sliver of life and forget the endless span You inhabit.
How easily I give into hopelessness, I give into anxiety, into sin. How quickly I forget Your steadfastness, I forget Your comfort, Your holiness.
Teach me, Father, to see my existence as but a breath. As a blade of grass I stand for a moment before I am scorched away and return to dust. Why then do I fill my ephemeral existence with so much folly. Why do I not use every precious moment You have bestowed to me in wholehearted devotion to You?
This is my ailment: my narrow vision.
When I succumb to sin, I believe it will provide me lasting happiness. Yet, sin is but a fleeting pleasure. It has always left me hollow. If I would consider the enduring satisfaction, indelible joy, supreme pleasure found in You, how could I ever give into sin?
O that I would look back to eternity past, and see how You, in love, predestined me. See how You chose to place Your affections upon me, for no worth of my own. That You would choose me to be included in Your plan for maximal glory.
O that I would look at the breadth of history, and see how time and again You have proven faithful. How You have continually nurtured Your people, even when they forsook You. That You perfectly crafted a plan of redemption to redeem Your chosen ones. That You would send Your beloved Son to live among men, to die among criminals, to rise in new life, and to ascend in glory. All this so that He might bear my sins, I might be counted righteous, and You be just and the justifier. What greater love is there than this!
O that I would look at the short years my life has inhabited, and see how You have shown unfathomable love towards me. That even in my rebellion You loved me, and called me, and justified me. That day after day You sanctify me and conform me to the image of Your radiant Son. That You have been my comforter day after day. My peace in troubled times. My refuge in the storms of life. My truth and my anchor. My eternal joy!
O that I would look to my future days on earth. Each and every one of them written in Your book, though not one has come to pass. And in each day You have promised to work all things for my good.
O that I would look beyond my earthly life to eternity future. For You have promised that my mortal flesh will be raised immortal, and my sin stained garments will be traded for pure white robes. For You shall wipe away every tear, and sin shall be no more, and the anguish of this life will fade away. And I will stand before You to gaze upon Your visage with my own eyes. And I shall behold my radiant Redeemer at Your side. And my sinless tongue shall cry out in a heavenly timbre, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And I shall fall at Your feet and worship You with joy inexpressible and filled with glory!
When the fog of temptation settles upon me, and the allure of sin seems too great to overcome, I must look beyond the temporal to the eternal. If only I would consider eternity past to eternity future, I would see sin as but a momentary gratification. A fleeting sliver of hollow happiness, that is but an infinitesimal instant in comparison to the great span of eternity. And were I to set my mind upon Your inexhaustible goodness from eternity to eternity, I would see all sin, all anxiety, all doubt as exceedingly worthless.
Father in Heaven, broaden my narrow vision to look behind and beyond and to behold my glorious Savior above.