And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.   Hebrews 10:19-23 (NLT, my emphasis)
What legacy will I leave? What legacy will you leave? Now this is an unimportant question if we all live to see Jesus return. If we arrive in heaven in the way everyone before has, by dying, then we will leave a legacy.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews speaks about a legacy of faith in Chapter 11. It’s a passage with some comfort as I read it because the list of “greats of the faith†are not great because of their perfection but rather in spite of their im-perfections! Abraham did not just blindly follow God’s directions and wait patiently for the fulfillment of His promises. He took matters into his own hands, made a mess of it, and then found his patience to wait on God. Moses argued with God about His directive to return to Egypt to the point that God’s anger burned against him! And during the trek through the wilderness Moses attempted to “tweak†God’s way of doing things and ended up locked out of the Promise Land.
And so as I look at my life and what I might leave my children, grandchildren and friends, I am comforted that my legacy is also imperfect. I leave the same message as I have learned from those who went before me.
It is God who is great. It is God who takes this clay, me, and shapes and molds it into a useful tool to build His Kingdom. That whatever I leave behind as a worthy testimony was created because of the Hand that directed its path.
A legacy can be influenced by choices made throughout one’s life. That’s a fact that I don’t often sit and consider. How do my decisions affect a decision that may come up a day or a month or year or ten years later? It is so vital that I spend time with my LORD. It is His wisdom and revelation of knowledge that gives me lessons to learn and examples to live by. There are no shortcuts, my friends. The disciples were who they were because they gave up everything to live three years with Jesus, listening and learning from Him.
I have a friend who is battling a life-threatening illness. I pray for him every day. I want God to heal him and restore his physical health. There is so much that he can continue to do in God’s Kingdom. There is so much he has already done. The word that I would use to describe him is steadfast. He has taught me so much about staying true to the course or race that I have been given. His legacy has greatly affected my life. His is a God-given legacy of faith. That makes this gentle, humble man another “great in the faith.â€
In the Blink of an Eye written and sung by MercyMe
