These ongoing essays are named Fourth Quarter Strategies for a good reason. Our final quarter should be our best for our Lord.
Assuming we remain healthy, some of us may well make it to age 100. Then again, perhaps 90 is a good goal and breaking a life into three thirds of 30 years each makes more sense to you as it does for Alan Smith, regional director (West Region) for CBMC (Christian Business Men’s Connection).
Alan met with a small group of local CBMC leaders here in Santa Barbara recently. One of his talking points for our older group of Christian business professionals (some retired) was a white paper designed to help us to sense the value we still have for the Lord and younger professionals in the local marketplace.
He kindly gave me permission to write on this subject and to include six biblical verses that have one thing in common.
All six are found in the first chapter and third verse in their respective books. We don’t see this as a coincidence, but specifically designed for our use for God’s glory!
Those verses follow:
Psalm 1:3 — “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither whatever they do prospers.”
Joel 1:3 — “Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.”
1 Thessalonians 1:3 — “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus.”
2 Thessalonians 1:3 — “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.”
2 Timothy 1:3 — “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.”
1 John 1:3 — “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may also have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
Alan rightly considers these six One-Three Verses as “food for thought,” and I certainly agree with him as a fellow follower of Christ who sees the value of our latter years. After all, those who fit this category are often unencumbered and available.
I know for certain our Lord does not want us to relax and simply waste away waiting for Him to call us home. In fact, such an attitude may bring Him to that conclusion.
In his letter to the Church in Philippi, the Apostle Paul succinctly concluded “to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
His life gives us a beautiful example of how to live our lives to the very end for our Lord Jesus. I encourage you to join me with the attitude of a distance runner focusing on the prize that lies ahead!
So, whether you’re in that final third or nearing the fourth quarter of your life here on this planet, please consider and pray for God’s divine providence for your final contribution before our Lord takes you home.