Billy Graham’s last will and testament was released to the public today. The great evangelist died in February.
In the frist section, he encourages people to take up Godly devotion in their daily lives and to defend the gospel.
I commit myself wholly into the hands of my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing by God’s Word that through His shed blood my sins have been atoned for and taken away and that through His merits I shall be presented faultless in the presence of His glory.
When you read this I will be safely with Jesus in Paradise. I will be awaiting the reunion of our family in Heaven. Time on earth is so short. It seems only yesterday that I was a little boy playing on the family farm near Charlotte. It seems only yesterday that I took your mother on our first date on the second Sunday of December, 1940. It seems only yesterday that we were married on the full moonlit night in August, 1943. It seems only yesterday that I opened a letter from your mother to say that we were expecting our first child in the fall of 1945.
That idea is what struck me in his note.
Billy Graham lived 99 years. And yet even long lives are still so short.
I’m in my thirties. Billy Graham was older than some of my great grandparents. But it is amazing how quickly time goes by. Memories of my youth, events that happened over a quarter century ago “seem only yesterday.”
Life is short. And while we’re so tempted to all assume that we will have long lives, no one knows when the last day will be. It’s easy to take time for granted. But it’s finite and fleeting.
As I think about Billy Graham, he was a man who had his first priority right: living a life that revolved around the gospel.
There’s no time to wait. We need to live for God today. If you don’t know Jesus, or if you do but you have never really taken that relationship seriously, don’t wait. Don’t put it off. Today is the day.
Childhood seems only yesterday. And even for those who live Billy Graham lifespans, the last day will seem like only tomorrow. Live for Jesus today!
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
-1 Peter 5:6-7
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
Josh Benner 