So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:18
Heaven… whose talking about it? Anyone? Maybe we discuss it when a loved one dies. Or, maybe when we accepted Jesus we were told that’s where we’d live forever. Maybe we’ve contemplated the alternative – Hell, and considered heaven the better option.
If you’re like me, apart from the occasional fleeting thought, heaven hasn’t been a priority in your daily thoughts. Why are we not thinking about it? I mean after all, the Bible tells us believers we’re livin’ there FOREVER!
Seriously, I may have 80 or so years here on earth, and everyone under the sun is telling me how to live out these eighty years! My daily focus is improving my life and the life of those I love. Yet, NO ONE is talking about how I am supposed to live out eternally.
When I compare these years to eternity, it makes my 80 seem pretty stinkin’ short! Which makes the dominate discussion about this life and skimpy teachings about eternity hilariously lopsided!
I have heard the variety of end-time theologies. I have watched plays re-enacting life in Hell. I have witnessed countless sermons, speakers, and teachers share how to live out a blessed life on this earth – but NO ONE is talking about how to specifically live ETERNALLY!
What if I need to know something when I arrive? I don’t want to get there and say ‘Wow, I wish someone would have told me that before I got here!’
Why is there so little information on a place we are going to live out FOREVER!? I have one theory – Satan! Yes… I went there!
I mean think about it, he’s experienced eternity, and knows everything about it, yet he can never return to it. It stands to reason he has the most to gain through our ignorance. And it’s obvious he would have great resentment toward us. After all, we received the promise simply by believing! Yes, us weak, sinful, and created humans! We are the ones who inherit what he will never, ever get back! It clearly makes sense to me!
Imagine for a moment, if he can keep our focus on these 80 or so years we have here, we will live a life below our god-give inheritance on this earth, because our focus is trying to make heaven appear on a dying earth.
I have been REMADE for a life in Christ, but I don’t believe it’s just for this life. I’m really beginning to think it’s more about the one to come.
Truly, as believers we’ve stopped longing for His return. We don’t desire the place Jesus went to prepare for us. We desire the things of this present time, and we’ve forgotten about the place He’s preparing.
I believe the Lord is waiting for His bride (The Believers) to have a desperate longing for Him, His New Earth, and His New Heaven more than they long for a better life on this earth.
I wonder, just wonder… what if the body of believers come to a place of such deep yearning for his return and their inheritance, that their desires begin to replace the longings of this world, I just wonder what would happen…
Lord, help us to turn our prayers toward the eternal things. I pray Lord, that my prayers become a longing for your Kingdom to come, more than the longing for you to make my life heaven on earth. Help me to long for your return more than I long for you to fix my problems. Help me Lord to see eternally. Amen.
Think about the things of heaven not the things of earth. Col. 3:2
You may not blog every day or every week like all the blogging communities say a blogger is suppose to but every time a Remade Ministry Blog shows up in my inbox, I know it will be worth my time to read. Your depth is amazing. Thanks Beth for being an obedient servant to God and not the so-called “experts” in blogging.
Have a blessed week!
Thanks Dawn for such an awesome compliment! I’m glad you enjoyed it. I get worried at times because I don’t blog very often, but I just want to make whatever I say count, and not just take up space for the sake of taking up space. Your words are an awesome encouragement to continue to do what God’s asked me to do.
Wow!!!!! I felt so much peace after reading this. I began to imagine the place That is being prepared for me, even now as I’m typing this, and how indescribably amazing heaven will be!!! Why dont I meditate on this more often? Even after a few minutes of meditating on it, the problems I face here seem smaller, and less significant. Thanks for reminding us all that we are only pilgrims passing through, and that we are made for SO MUCH MORE!
I am glad that this caused you to ask the same questions I did. Thanks for commenting.