Daily Manna · Day 178 · June 27
Abiding Forever
“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
A tide going out, and two people standing in it.
One has built everything above the waterline and knows it: the job title, the renovation, the reputation quietly maintained. The other has built almost nothing, is ashamed of that, and reads this verse as one more line about how little he has to show.
John's sentence reaches them differently and refuses to serve only one. The world passeth away, and the lust thereof. That is present tense; it is already going, not scheduled to go, and it takes its cravings out with it, which is a mercy the second reader should notice before he skips past it. What abides is not the person who built the most, nor the one with the strongest feelings, nor the one with the best intentions. It is he that doeth the will of God. Not admires it. Not intends it. Does it.
So the truth cuts both of them the same way. Nothing you have is permanent, and nothing you lack disqualifies you, because the only thing that crosses the line is obedience, and obedience is available to both men this afternoon at no cost except the doing.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 178 is Hitherto (1 Samuel 7:12).