1 Cor. 15:19 “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.“
What is in this life that is miserable? In this life our eyes see, our ears hear, our hands touch, our tongue tastes, and our nose smells all kinds of different things. We are born busy interacting with this life. The spectrum of emotions hits us in waves of highs, mediums, and lows. Our brain is busy with processing all the sights, sounds, feelings, tastes, and aromas. In this life that is our fleshly body reacting to the physical interactions. This is the life we know within ourselves.
What is in this life outside of ourselves? When we look out through our eyes that are recording the people, places, and things, we come to know the conclusion that things are not permanent. A tree in the neighborhood that once stood strong is now gone because of a strong wind, or cut down for a house to be built there. We see our grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles growing older and slower. Our same age cousins, friends, and class mates change along with us. Everything is fading away with time.
We have a grandparent that passes away, seeing the funeral, and the burial service. We see them no more. The other grandparent passes away. Mom and Dad are starting to look like our grandparents. We get married, have children, who were us when we were small, and we become our parents, the aunts, the uncles, and then grandparents. A coming and going in this life.
In this life our loved ones do not stay with us permanently. In this life the truth is no matter how good things are they change and pass away with time. Having hope in this life only has a dead end street of misery with us saying goodbye to the things we love. Hope is this life only?
1 Cor. 15:19 “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” This Bible scripture even implies placing all our hope as a follower of Jesus Christ in this world only and stopping here is still a miserable ending. There is something beyond this world to place our total hope on that is the opposite of misery. What is beyond this life? Do we know? Do we see it? Are we looking for this hope to encourage us? A born again Christian cannot stop their hope in this life only to be happy.
The word miserable implies gloom, sad, pathetic, tragic, etc. The opposite of miserable implies cheerful, happy, and joyful. While we may experience moments of cheerfulness, happiness, and joyfulness in this life we know it is only a passing memory. Everything in this life is temporary, including people. You pull up memory that you cherish with great fondness, but they are no longer here physically and sadness sets in.
The two things God pointed out to me in this scripture was 1 Cor. 15:19 “If in this life only we have hope… we are of all men most miserable.” If in this life only we have hope we are all of mankind most miserable. In “this life only we have hope“? While we are in this life should we be looking somewhere else for life? What is outside this life? Is there something past this life? Placing our hope in this life will bring misery?
I have thanked God for so many things in this life. Take a pause and what is the first thing that pops in your mind as a happy or joyful thing you have encounter in your past that brought a smile to your face and a laughter from deep within you. You and I have memories of people, places, and things that have brought joy and thankfulness to have them in our lives. The older we become the more we love and cherish those things in this life thanking God for allowing them to cross our paths.
Have you ever just stopped and thank God for the beautiful sunrise, the blue sky, the fall colored leaves, and many other natural things? I have thanked God when a project goes well. I have thanked God to be able to see, walk, and talk considering my fellow mankind bound by wheel chairs, bedridden, and using seeing eye dogs. I have gone through the category of memories of my relatives and families being grateful to God they were in my life and still grateful.
We are all extremely attached to the people, places, and things in this life. I never considered thanking God for the spiritual life. God gave Adam and Eve this whole world to enjoy, but He gave them something else. God gave mankind a spiritual life. I thank God I have and you have a spiritual life that will not pass away. We have a side to us that no other recorded creation in all creations in beginning received from God such as you and I have.
There is hope we are not stuck with misery, gloom, sad, pathetic, and tragedy in this life only. In this life we have moments of joy and happiness, but it is also filled with different levels of afflictions. The aging process starts taking away how healthy you feel, adding back pains, muscles pains, slow recoveries, and many other issues you cannot stop the body from evolving into. You may not have that now, but you can see it in others around you and don’t be naïve your body is heading in their direction.
There is hope we are not stuck saying a permanent goodbye to our loved ones. In this life it is permanent we will not see them living before as they did in this world, but because of having a spiritual side we can look forward to seeing them again. When they die hope is taken away from us, but hope is restored in the spiritual life to come.
I thank God for giving us our spiritual side so we can go beyond this life to once again see our loved ones, to see the skies of heaven, and the eternal dwelling places. There will be no more misery, gloom, sadness, pathetic things, and tragedies in the spiritual realm God has created for us. He gave us a spiritual side to live forever and not to be depressed in placing our hope in this world and this life only.
The hope is there inside you. No matter your age and battle you are facing. You have to fight the depressing thoughts of your situation trying to take you over, not feeling needed anymore, and/or feeling useless. You have an eternal spirit looking out through your eyes right now reading these words and the ability to look out through the sky to an endless hope of joy in the life with God who loves you. You have an inward spiritual person who can be renewed everyday in the fellowship with God. The end of this world is not your ending.
1 Cor. 4:16 “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” You who are reading this may not be of an old age, but the truth remains the same no matter the age. You are growing older in this life and your fleshly body will perish, die, and pass away. You are becoming your parents, your aunts, uncles, and possibly one day your grandparents. God gave you your inward man that is not going to die. We all will and do face different forms of afflictions. There is no escape of what happens in this life. It rains on the just people and the unjust people.
Your hope in this life will faint and fade away as many as before you, but the real inward spiritual you will live beyond your flesh. The true strength of your hope is in your spiritual connection with God past all the things in this life. The hope that faints and fades away not is in the Spirit.
I have found in this life a spiritual part of me that can and will live beyond the troubles of this world by a gift God gave us. 1 Cor. 4:17 “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;” In this life the afflictions, troubles, and issues drives us to resolve, adapt, and the reason of what has come upon us. Perspective and understanding keeps things in their rightful place.
We have a spiritual side God gave us that can reach outward beyond this life to receive the wisdom that is from above that James 3:17 “…is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” Isn’t that awesome to have that possible eternal resource being renewed day by day if we want it? Our spirit can connect with that pure wholesome wisdom strengthening our life in a way this world never could.
I am thankful everyday for things in this life, but I also have to thank God for giving us a spiritual life that will not pass away. We are in a sense saying, goodbye to each other everyday because we do not know the day or the hour our fleshly body will fails us. In this life the life of the flesh will fail us, but inside the life of this flesh is an eternal spiritual life God made permanent, “…though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day“. God wanted Adam and Eve to live with Him for all eternity as any truly loving father would.
The inward person inside of us being renewed day by day is determined by the focus of our mind, heart, and soul on the choices we make daily. God encourages us to point our hope in the direction of His Spirit and Word because the things in this life are temporary appeasements. 18 “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
I never thought to thank God for giving us our spiritual side. We live so much on a day to day basis dealing with things in this world. It makes it easy to see only this life forgetting a freedom we have in our spiritual life. We have more than our fleshly bodies to live with in this life.
There is a joy that is hard to put into words when you ask, seek, and knock on God’s door. God will give our spirit words of perception and understanding beyond living by the bread of this world alone. God will help our spirit to find what it is looking for even though we expected something different. It is a promise by God that if we knock on His door it shall be opened. Mtt. 7:7 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” 8 “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Are those not the most beautiful spiritual words you can read?
Those of you who are faithful in reading the things God shares with me know that I cannot close out without sharing a Biblical truth that this world does not want you to have. I was almost one of those who missed out on this spiritual truth, but God had mercy on me and sent someone to challenge my truth vowed relationship with God. I put all my hope and trust in God’s word and not mans.
And here it is: Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.“
The majority of Christian doctrines/teachings avoid, overlook, or try to explain away this scripture. My asking, seeking, and knocking to God for the pure truth lead me to see, know, and understand this is God’s plan of salvation and everything else outside this is the traditions of mankind.
To activate completely your spiritual side with God is getting your spirit on the inside of the body of Jesus Christ and God’s Spirit getting on the inside of your body with your spirit. This is why Jesus said, Jn. 16:13 “Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.“
Salvation is simple, yet extremely deep in understanding. You completely repent turning away from your sins and the sins of world that God rejected. You go down under water in baptism saying, “…in the name of Jesus Christ…” for the purpose and reason of applying the blood of Jesus Christ with the power to wash away your sins before God. The final part is receiving the gift with the power of the Holy Spirit of God inside of you that has never changed from what happen to those when it started.
Adam in the beginning was breathed upon by God giving him spiritual life and Adam spoke. We are breathed upon by God once again, a born again of the Spirit birth, making us alive once again by speaking words His Holy Spirit gives us to speak, which will not be in our fleshly natural words, but another language proving as a sign His Spirit has moved inside our bodies with His Spirit.
If God wants you to have this experience would you not want it if He is willing to give it? Look to your spiritual side with God because outside of that all things are temporary. If you put your hope in this life only you will be find the ending most miserable, but your hope in the spiritual walk and talk with God completely satisfying.
May God richly bless you in His fellowship and Word.