Leaving a Legacy

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.  Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Hello dear friends.  I hope your past week was pleasant.  I know we are looking forward to the cooler weather that fall will bring.  Just last night, a cool front came into the River Valley here in Arkansas.  It was very nice sitting on the back porch this morning, drinking my cup of coffee, and studying God’s Word.

Over the past several months, I have had the opportunity to celebrate the home going to Heaven of several Christian saints who were dear to my heart.  Reminiscing with love ones over precious memories made me begin to think about the spiritual legacy we leave when our LORD calls us home to Heaven.  Search your heart today and ask yourself, if my LORD called me home today would I be proud of the spiritual legacy that I leave for my family and friends?  Friends, we will leave behind a spiritual legacy for our loved ones.  Charles Swindoll said, “Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.”  Determine today to leave a legacy that points your family and friends to Jesus Christ.  Deposit in their memory banks precious, godly memories. 

I believe we can agree that life is short.  God tells us in His Word in James 4:14 – Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Psalm 144:4 – Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.  Study notes from the Life Application Bible tell us, “Life is short no matter how many years we live.  Don’t be deceived into thinking that you have lots of remaining time to live for Christ, to enjoy your loved ones, or to do what you know you should.  Live for God today!” 

Choose today to demonstrate your love and commitment to Christ, before your family and friends.  Mark 12:30 – Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  Be honest and ask yourself this question, can my family and friends see that I love Christ with my whole heart, soul, and mind?  If you can’t answer this question with a yes, stop right now and recommit your heart, soul, and mind to Christ.  Ask Christ to help you live a life that is totally committed to Him so that when He calls you home to glory you will leave behind a spiritual legacy that will be pleasing to Him and will point the ones you love toward Christ.

Do your family and friends see that your life is clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience?  Colossians 3:12-14 – Therefore , as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.  Apart from a close personal relationship with Christ, you will not be able to demonstrate the virtues listed in Colossians 3:12-14. The closer we are in our walk with the LORD, the more we will resemble Him in our behavior toward others.  Spend times each day in Bible study and prayer.  Pray and ask Jesus to place in your heart a desire to fellowship with Him through Bible study and prayer.  Jesus desires a personal relationship with each of us.  The only way we will mature spiritually is through intentional, personal time with our Savior and LORD.

The world is filled with a tremendous amount of negatively.  God tells us in His Word in Ephesians 4:29, 31 – Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Words of encouragement, spoken to family and friends, are never forgotten.  Choose today to leave behind a spiritual legacy that is filled with kind and encouraging words.  Do not leave behind bitterness, rage, and malice for your family and friends.  The sin of bitterness, rage, and malice eat away at the peace and contentment a Christian should have in their life.  In addition, this bitterness, rage, and malice could become a stumbling block that keeps family and friends from coming to know Christ as their Savior and LORD. 

Do your family and friends see you storing up treasures in Heaven?  Matthew 6:20-21 – But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  As mature Christians on this journey toward our Heavenly home, it is important that we demonstrate what is really important; eternal kingdom treasures, not material possessions. 

As stated before, life is fleeting.  Be intentional about the spiritual legacy you will leave for your family and friends.  My heart’s desire is for my family and friends to know Jesus as Savior and LORD.  This life will soon be over friend, and eternity will begin. 

Dear Heavenly Father...I humbly bow before You telling You I love you.  LORD I pray you will help us to be intentional as we live our lives.  Help us Father to leave a spiritual legacy for our family and friends which will point them to You as Savior and LORD.  Father please forgive the mistakes we have made and from this day forth I pray our words and actions will be pleasing to You.  In Jesus Name I Pray.....AMEN