Finishing Well: Can You Retire From Serving God?
Getting old to the glory of God means resolutely resisting the typical American dream of retirement. It means being so satisfied with all that God promises to be for us in Christ that we are set free from the cravings that create so much emptiness and uselessness in retirement. Instead, knowing that we have an infinitely satisfying and everlasting inheritance in God just over the horizon of life makes us zealous in our few remaining years here to spend ourselves in the sacrifices of love, not the accumulation of comforts.
If we are going to make God look glorious in the last years of our lives, we must be satisfied in him. He must be our Treasure. And the life that we live must flow from this all-satisfying Christ. And the life that flows from the soul that lives on Jesus is a life of love and service. This is what will make Christ look great. When our hearts find their rest in Christ, we stop using other people to meet our needs, and instead we make ourselves servants to meet their needs.
By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org. Used by permission.
More from this series:
- You Will Never See Death!
- A Tender Word for Pharisees
- The Pride of Babel and the Praise of Christ
- Probability, Prejudice and Christ
- Jesus Came to Earth to Destroy the Works of the Devil
- Covenant Love: Secrets to Staying Married
- Finishing Well: Can You Retire From Serving God?
- Boiling for Jesus
- I Have Seen the Lord: How Different Generations Come to Faith