CONSIDER IT
All too often our hopes are attached to things that are good, but not intimately good. We hope for good health, or for successful and obedient children, or for a happy marriage, or for an interesting job, or for enough money to retire. While God may grant these things, none of them are guaranteed. Rather, God invites us to hope for what is ultimately good Himself. He invites us to know Him intimately and become like Him. If we attach our hopes to God, we will never be disappointed.
We get a taste of God's Presence in this life as we spend more and more time with Him, knowing the ultimate fulfillment of our hope will come in heaven. While this hope of heaven can feel far away and vague, we can be gripped by it here and now and through the glimpses of it we find in God's Word. We are meant to start entering into the ways of heaven now, and when our heavenly hope becomes substantial and real to us, it is easier to hold our earthly hopes with a more relaxed hand.
Think about what you believe heaven may look like. How attractive does it seem to you?
EXPERIENCE IT
"Seek My Face, and you will find all that you have longed for. The deepest yearnings of your heart are for intimacy with Me. I know because I designed you to desire Me. Do not feel guilty about taking time to be still in My Presence. You are simply responding to the tugs of divinity inside you. I made you in My image, and I hid heaven in your heart.
Your yearning for Me is a form of homesickness: longing for your true home in heaven. Do not be afraid to be different from other people. The path I have called you to travel is exquisitely right for you. The more closely you follow My leading the more fully I can develop your gifts. To follow Me wholeheartedly, you must relinquish your desire to please other people. However, your closeness to Me will bless others by enabling you to shine brightly in this dark world"
Are you aware of homesickness or yearning for Jesus and your true home in heaven? if so, what is that like for you? Are your yearnings more about other things?
"I want you to know how safe and secure you are in My Presence. That is a fact, totally independent of your feelings. You are on your way to heaven; nothing can prevent you from reaching that destination. There you will see Me face to Face, and your Joy will be off the charts by any earthly standards. Even now, you are never separated from Me, though you must see Me through eyes of faith. I will walk with you till the end of time, and onward into eternity. Although My Presence is a guaranteed promise, that does not necessarily change your feelings. When you forget I am with you, you may experience loneliness or fear. It is through awareness of My Presence that Peace displaces negative feelings. Practice the discipline of walking consciously with Me through each day"
How does walking consciously with Jesus throughout the day strengthen your hope?
(Consider It ... Experience It / Sarah Young)
Scripture Insight: Today's passages show us how our future in heaven is relevant to us now.
1 Peter 1:3-7 and Hebrews 6:10-12
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed"
ReplyDelete(1 Peter 1:3-7 / New International Version)
"God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised"
(Hebrews 6:10-12 / New International Version)