"O LORD, by your hand save me from such men, from men of this world whose reward is in this life" (Psalm 17:14).

Whenever I travel over the ocean, I am always reminded of the seemingly insignificant time we have on this earth. I often imagine dropping a glass of water out the window of the jet into the huge body of water below. The Lord then reminds me that this is how my life is compared to eternity. A mere drop in the ocean.

Yet, everyday millions of people will go to work seeking to gain that elusive thing called success. The rewards of this life continue to provide the incentive for sixty-hour weeks or the extra weekend away from the family. Sometimes we get entrenched in the message of the world. This message is an appealing, seductive call to sell out eternity for the temporal.

As a Christian businessman, I fell for this for many years until the Lord allowed me to wake up. It took some severe wakeup calls, but, they did their job. I'm so grateful the Lord cares enough to give us these wakeup calls. He knows what real life is about. We think we know what it is, only to learn once again that real life is only in what is built upon eternity. How does this verse line up with where you are today? Are you building around a world whose reward is in this lifetime, or an eternal one? Do those in whom you associate live in such a way that they demonstrate their reward is not concerning this life? Jesus said to seek first His Kingdom and all these things will be added. Amen.