Mark 8:37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul {spirit}?
In IT, we have products that state ‘lifetime warranty,’ and many think that, while they are alive, they will get service for it. They do not realise that when the manufacturer states lifetime, they are referring to the life of the product, and that is normally 3 to 5 years.
When we buy something, we do not realise that most of the time we are just renting/leasing it, and they are for a period. Most electronics or mechanical items have a very short period of a few years, and after that they are redundant; we may drag their utility for some more years. Even things like property are not forever, for we ourselves are not forever. We use them for a period and may hand them over to our children; the day someone of our generation does not have children, the property is lost.
The word in today’s scripture translated as soul is the word that means ‘breathe’, referring to our spirit, which in turn refers to our life. Through today’s scripture, the Lord is asking us what we can give in exchange for our own lives.
Firstly, our lives are a gift, and we ourselves do not own them. Secondly, our lives are not forever; only God has life within Himself, and we who are His creation have a period of life. Our spirit life is in thousands of years, but after we were put in the flesh and we sinned, our natural lives were reduced and made to be no more than 120 years. That means we exit this natural world, but our spirit till continues to exist. To implement this, Hell came into existence. Hell is a stronghold/prison where a spirit that does not know God is kept till it completes its spirit life term, and during this period it suffers all the sins within it.
Those who sleep in the Lord before Judgment Day will rise and be judged. While we sleep, the time clock is frozen/it is like cryonics. Those who get to enter Heaven get access to the Tree/River of Life, which allows renewal of life as and when needed; thus, like other Heavenly beings can live eternally. Those who do not enter Heaven go to the Lake of Fire, where they do not suffer their sins but a severe punishment for forsaking the Will of God.
So if we look at things on the whole, all materialistic things or accolades of this world last for a blink of an eye. What lasts are things that are spiritual, and that too only if we go to Heaven.
So when we look at the whole, we have nothing, not even our own lives; thus, what can we give for our own lives but just thanks to God. We live for a purpose wherein we are blessed in Him and spiritually prosper in Him.
[Prayer Starter]
Lord, You are Almighty God. You, Lord, created us to have life and that too in fullness. Lord, we pray we understand we were created and exist for a purpose, and that purpose is only in You. We pray we do not get distracted from the purpose with things that are futile. We pray that although we live in this world, our eyes are set on You and Your Kingdom…
We make this prayer in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
[Reference Scriptures]
Mark 8:34-36
34 And when he had called the people [unto him] with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel s, the same shall save it.
36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: