Truth Matters From Pastor Dean Brdlik, July 5th 2023

“Retirement”…seems like more people, even young people, are becoming obsessed with the idea of getting to a place free of responsibility, to do what you want when you want, hopefully with enough money to sustain your comfortable life-style.  Most often “retirement” is planned for without thought about God…bringing Him into the decision process.  “Retirement” is often thought of this way:  “I’ve worked all my life and now I want to enjoy life as I want.”  I cannot find this concept taught in scripture.  Jesus gives you a different picture:

 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”  (Luke 12). 

Your priority should be, “How do You Lord want to use me until I die.”  Service for Christ and His kingdom should be your primary concern…not, how can I enjoy more of the passing things of this world.  Seems like Christ and His kingdom doesn’t often enter into our retirement plans.

Today’s My Utmost for His Highest gives us some “retirement” insight:

“Don’t plan without God. God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the plans we have made, when we have not taken Him into account. We get ourselves into circumstances that were not chosen by God, and suddenly we realize that we have been making our plans without Him— that we have not even considered Him to be a vital, living factor in the planning of our lives. And yet the only thing that will keep us from even the possibility of worrying is to bring God in as the greatest factor in all of our planning.

In spiritual issues it is customary for us to put God first, but we tend to think that it is inappropriate and unnecessary to put Him first in the practical, everyday issues of our lives.

Don’t plan with a concern for evil in mind. Does God really mean for us to plan without taking the evil around us into account?  When we were apart from God, we did take evil into account, doing all of our planning with it in mind, and we tried to reason out all of our work from its standpoint.

Don’t plan with a rainy day in mind. You cannot hoard things for a rainy day if you are truly trusting Christ. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:1). God will not keep your heart from being troubled. It is a command— “Let not….” To do it, continually pick yourself up, even if you fall a hundred and one times a day, until you get into the habit of putting God first and planning with Him in mind.”

Of course, it is prudent for us to plan for the day when we are no longer able to work at jobs or hold positions we did when younger, but this planning must bring Christ and His kingdom as the primary consideration…a much different “retirement” objective.  My prayer for you and me today is this:  Lord, no matter what our station in life, use us up.  We want to pray as the Apostle Paul did:  “…the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race,  I have kept the faith…”  (2 Timothy 4:6-7).  Amen.

Walk with the King today and be a blessing.