God’s instruction to us is, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Without a reverent stillness at the center of our hearts, joy cannot break through the noise of earthly life. Of all the killjoys in the world, irreverent busyness is the worst.
Those who pursue nothing higher than pleasure are missing out on real joy. We should set these words in stone: joy is the highest experience of the human heart. Pleasure, as good as it may be in its way, is a poor, unsatisfying substitute for joy.
Whether we’re “living in the past” or “daydreaming about the future” or we’re just too busy with trivia to savor the present moment, the end result is often the same: life gets away from us without our having thought about it as it went rushing by.
There is great comfort in knowing that God is above and beyond time, that time is within His control and subject to His sovereignty. Whatever problems the passage of time may present for us, nothing that has to do with time is a problem for God.
In the end, our confidence must be in God, not our own wisdom or ability. Having been as prudent as we know how to be and then acting as energetically as we can, we must trust that God will take our actions and bring about a good return.
Until the eternal inheritance is ours, let us recognize the paucity of our present understanding and be prepared, when our Lord returns, to rejoice in whatever God has for us. The reality will break the boundaries of everything we’ve ever dreamed of!
We appreciate heaven only when we vividly contemplate it. Just as those who accomplish great worldly goals are those who keep their goals clearly in mind, those who aspire to heaven need to concentrate on it with a keen focus.
We need to understand that the object of the Christian’s hope is, as Paul says, our “adoption, the redemption of our body.” Christianity is first and foremost about eternity, and our hopes for this world ought to be minimal.
Here is a sobering thought: whether they are made under strong emotion or not, promises have to be kept. We are not later released from the obligations we bound ourselves to simply because “on further review” we see that they are inconvenient.
I know we don’t have the option of going to heaven until our work is done. But if today the Lord were to say, “Your work is done,” shouldn’t we be thrilled? Is there anything in this life that we wouldn’t gladly give up to be with the Lord today?