Only One Opportunity

“For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” (Ps 6:5 AV)

The old-time preachers used to use the phrase, “keep short accounts with God.”  I don’t know who originated that phrase or in exactly what context it was originally was used, but it came to mean that we were to confess our sin before the LORD quickly and often.  The idea was that if we were to meet God this very moment, what sin would we have gone to our graves unresolved and unconfessed.  One of the most impressionable moments I experienced was a message preached by my good friend, Hal Roscoe.  I cannot remember the text or the who theme of the message, but towards the end of his sermon, he drew a word picture that has stuck with me for almost thirty years.  He asked the question:  if we could remove ourselves from our flesh and sit next to ourselves, how would our souls appear?  Would they be white and pure with the righteousness of Christ, or would they appear gray or blackish with unresolved sin?  Then he followed up that question with another.  If we could imagine our true souls’ condition, how would we feel if we immediately appeared in the presence of Christ in glory having not confessed or striven against our wickedness?

The point of our Psalmist is that we have only one life and one opportunity in which we can please the Father in the context of overcoming.  Once that trumpet blows or God requires our souls. All opportunity of sacrifice and self-denial comes to an end.  All the doors that were placed before us are closed.  No longer will we have the opportunity to praise the LORD and testify of Him in the face of opposition.  No longer will be able to come to His throne and seek His forgiveness, promising to strive harder each day to do that which is pleasing in His eyes.  Sure, we will have opportunity to serve the LORD in glory.  But it will not be the same.  There will be no old man to overcome.  There will be no sin nature to chasten and defeat.  There we be no adversary to conquer.  Once this life is gone, there will be no more fight.

We may look at the struggles of life as a hindrance.  But actually, they are opportunities.  They are opportunities to exercise the mind of Christ and we are instructed to put on in the book of Philippians.  That mind of Christ which prefers sacrifice and self-denial is the mind that brings the opportunity to show our love for Christ in a way that eternity cannot.  When we struggle with sin and strive against it, we show our love for Christ.  When we serve in the midst of great obstacles, we are showing our love for Christ.  When we trust Him implicitly even in the midst of hardship, it is an opportunity to show our love for Christ.  These will one day be gone.  In one sense, glory to God.  In another, a missed opportunity.