“O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us! We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace” (1 Chronicles 29:13-15, NLT).

King David summoned all the officials of Israel to Jerusalem including the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of the army, and the overseers of royal property. He told them that he wanted to build a temple in Jerusalem to worship God, but God planned for his son, Solomon, to succeed him to the throne and build the temple.

David had made many preparations for the building of the temple including drafting architectural plans and gathering most of the materials needed to build it. After David had charged Solomon to build the temple and handed him the plans in front of the whole assembly of Israel’s leaders, he praised God in a public prayer.

These verses are lifted from that prayer and contain a particularly rousing entreaty that is applicable not only to the people of ancient Israel but to God’s people today.

Since everything we are and have comes from God, then anything we give Him is only what He has given us in the first place. And that includes both material possessions and our physical life. So much so, that our life on this earth is like a short visit to a strange land.

The point is, that from the perspective of eternal life, the span of our our lives in this world is almost insignificant. So, we don’t want to live lives that focus completely on the things of the present world because we are creatures of eternity.

Yet, significance is very important to us. We want our lives to matter!

But, if you live your present life as a preparation for eternity, then everything you are and say and do does matter–it matters for eternity.

When you begin to live for the future in the present, then God endows your short life in this world with eternal significance!

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be” (Matthew 6:19-21, NLT).