"When I stand before the Lord...

...I'll be standing alone. This journey is my own."

I heard the lyrics to this song in junior high or high school, and the words struck me deeply with the reality of my own accountability before God. It was helpful at the time for me to realize that I wouldn't have standing next to me any of the people who I had been working so hard to please. The thoughts of God were ultimately all that mattered.

I haven't thought about that song for a long time, but the words came back to me today during a conversation with a friend about the reality of others' accountability before God. She had been playfully bantering with one of her students, and the student said, "Don't judge me!" My friend replied, "I won't," then paused and said, "but Jesus will." She thought after that about the reality of that student standing before the judgment seat.

Life is serious! We need to take it seriously, and not just for our own sake. We need to be seriously pointing others to the truth of our present time and of the sure future. We need to take every opportunity to point others to Christ and the Word, and we need to take seriously the role of prayer in our lives and in others' lives.

God is at work, and he is at work for the good of those who love him. Therefore, we trust him. We take comfort in the knowledge that Christ's righteousness covers us, and we have hope to joyfully press on to know him more. And we pull others along with us, knowing both the goodness of and the holiness our God.