The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out–but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. 1 John 2:17 (MSG)
We are eternal spiritual beings just like our Father God from whom we originate.
Though we live in a temporary earthen suit called a physical body on a temporary earth that shall pass away we are eternal sons and daughters of an eternal God.
Therefore we should have an eternal mindset. We should focus on eternal matters instead of issues that are temporary.
Jesus illustrated the importance of being eternity minded in contrast to the disappointment of being earthly or material minded in the parable of the rich fool.
Luke 12:16-21(NIV) And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”‘ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
When we focus on things of eternal value we are rich towards God. The things of eternal value include any purpose, plan, or pursuit where God is the center.
Looking at and conducting our life with a mindset of eternity means we acknowledge the everlasting God as the author and owner of our life. That we don’t just live carelessly as we wish but that we know we have to give an account to God of how we have spent this life that he entrusted to us as stewards.
Then again having an eternity viewpoint doesn’t mean thinking only about life after death or when we all get to heaven.
Eternity exists now even right here in this life on this earth, even in our physical, mental, and emotional world.
Eternity is the eternal God and all His eternal attributes including eternal life, everlasting love, perfect peace, fullness of joy, undisturbed rest, and many more influencing and driving us, our relationships, and everything we have, and do.
In the parable of the rich fool there was nothing wrong with that man growing crops and getting a bumper harvest, nothing wrong with building bigger barns and storing up for the future, absolutely nothing wrong with eating drinking and making merry.
The real big problem was God wasn’t in the picture. God’s purposes are nowhere included in that man’s plans.
The man was even ignorant of the fact that his very life belonged to God who had the right, authority, and power to demand it from him.
Eternity is about God with us, in us, for us and us in God with Him and for Him in all things we think, say and do. Let us be preoccupied with God centered, God driven pursuits. This is the view of eternity.