Paul shared a great hope with the Philippians in chapter one, verse six, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” God will always bring our relationship with Him and our salvation to completion when we see Jesus.
The end of our lives will be evidence of the beginning of our lives. If we have lived a blessed life in the Lord, seeking to please Him in all we say and do, then we will experience His peace and be satisfied with how we lived our lives and served Him. However, if we live our lives for ourselves, then we will feel emptiness instead. The beginning of Paul’s life was spent trying to follow customs and a religion. His life was more about rules and order. When Jesus changed his life, everything changed. His life became more about hope and actually trusting the God he thought he had served before. He realized that it was not about a religion, but a relationship.
For most Christians, that is how it is. There is a time before Christ, then salvation and regeneration occurs, and then after Christ. Take some time to really examine your life pre-Christ and post-Christ. Are they the same? If they are then you may need to pray about how to focus your life on Christ and not the things of Christ. It is time we as Christians invest more in the relationship and less in the religion. We must understand the God we serve and what His heart truly wants.