Rejoice For The Eternal

Luke 10:20

Jesus words to the 72; “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

The 72 sent out by Jesus, came back successful.

The sweet smell of success

They returned to Jesus with wonderful news of victory over all powers of darkness. Jesus was exhilarated too about their victory and joined in on the celebration.

Nevertheless, Jesus gave them a mentally, emotionally, and spiritually sobering truth to keep them on track, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

The Danger of Success

At this point, Jesus found it necessary to tell the 72 this. So why at this point and not before or even not at all? I believe it to be for this reason, to keep their heads in place, to keep things in perspective lest they lose the entire reason.

It's very easy to lose track after a great victory, and attaining success

It's very easy to lose track after a great victory, and after attaining success. You very easily drift into a ‘glory mode’ where you attribute the success to yourself and forget the person who's the cause and source of the success.

You immediately start seeing yourself as the hero and God somehow fades the scene. Your perspective is sidetracked, you lose your focus and it's not too long before you start going down spiritually.

With time you become insensitive to the Spirit, risking losing your soul for some short-lived glory.

Jesus pointed that out gently, compassionately and wisely to the 72 because their soul i.e. their character mattered more than the gifts ,the miracles and the power they had.

So too for you and me, we matter more to God than all of our gifts, our natural abilities, our strengths combined. Our souls are not worth losing for some victories in life, rather we should seek to have our names written in the book of life, to ascertain our place in heaven.

So when that victory comes, don't let it overtake you but rather rejoice that your name is written in the lamb’s book of life.