Taking an Eternal Perspective

Author: Dave Hunt
Date: March 4, 2021

The following is excerpted from Dave Hunt’s book “An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith,” on pages 98-99; and published in 2006 by The Berean Call, located in Bend, Oregon.

“God has an eternal purpose for our lives now and in the life we enter after death. Our passion should be to know and to fulfill that purpose, beginning here on this earth. One day very soon we will each stand before Him. What a tragedy to miss the very purpose for which we were created and redeemed!

You may say, “Yes, I want to be used of God, but I don’t know what He wants me to do.” Or, “I try to serve Him, try to witness for Him, and it all seems to come to nothing.”

Learn this: Before God can do much through you, He must do a great work in you. What counts most is not quantity but quality, not so much your outward effort but your motive within - the purity of your heart rather than your visible accomplishments or prominence with men.

Moreover, it seems much in time may be very little in eternity. It is not one’s talents or energy but the empowering of the Holy Spirit that produces genuine and lasting results: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). Trust God for the filling and empowering of His Spirit.

Millions have laid down their lives for the faith. Their commitment to Christ meant so much that they would not compromise when threatened with the most excruciating torture and death. Can we fathom and follow their choice?

The martyrs could have chosen the ecumenical path of compromise, of avoiding controversy and affirming the “common beliefs of all religions,” and thus have escaped the flame, drowning or sword. They chose instead to stand firm for the truth, to contend earnestly for the faith. Christ calls us to do the same. Will we answer the call?

Paul said he had been “put in trust with the gospel” (I Thessalonians 2:4). So have each of us if we are truly Christ’s own. Let us be certain that we keep that trust for the sake of the lost and in honor of our Lord, who paid such a price for our redemption!

There is no escaping the eternal choice the confronts us. Will we follow from afar, or will we seek to follow in our Lord’s very footsteps? One day we will give an account before God for the path we chose. What joy there is now and will be eternally being true to Him.”