Welcome back to Beliefnet’s exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, “Living with Grander Vision.” This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at the end of its cycle.
I sat in a conference one time when the speaker unfurled a roll of stickers. He wandered around a table at the front of the room that had tiny replicas of a house and a car and a desk. On each item, he affixed one of those stickers–stickers, we could see, that had the word Temporary printed on them. He looked at all of us gathered there and said that every single one of the things we saw represented–our custom homes and SUVs and six-figure incomes–would one day fade away, turning cartwheels like leaves in the wind when this world ends. “If you are living for these things,” he said, “then you are living a life of temporary pleasure, temporary satisfaction, and temporary fulfillment.”

It occurred to me as I watched him declare the fate of everything in front of us that only one thing in the room was permanent. It was us, people. We are the only “thing” that will exist in the next reality, the only earthly entity that will experience eternity by God’s side. Only souls will make it.
While it’s true that we need a roof over our heads and transportation and food and clothing and protection from people who have evil in mind, God reminds us of another truth: “There is a need that trumps all others,” he says, “and it’s the need for me. I’ll give you another kind of shelter, another kind of warmth, and another kind of nourishment that grocery stores can’t sell. If only you’ll look to me.”
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What needs press in on you today? Does it seem possible to prioritize other people’s needs over your own, especially during those times when you feel boxed in at every turn? Of the following sets of God-words, which encourages you most today? Spend several minutes praying them back to God. Write them down in a journal, word for word, so that the holy reminder lodges firmly in your mind.

Light, space, zest–that’s God! So, with him on my side I’m fearless, afraid of no one and nothing. When vandal hordes ride down ready to eat me alive, those bullies and toughs fall flat on their faces. When besieged, I’m calm as a baby. When all hell breaks loose, I’m collected and cool. Psalm 27:1-3 (MSG)
Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion–do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. Matthew 6:27-29 (MSG)
Your God is present among you, a strong Warrior there to save you. Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love and delight you with his songs. Zephaniah 3:17 (MSG)
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG)
Let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. 1 John 3:18-20 (MSG)