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?
Whatever the reasons for our fixation on the past may be, we need to work on overcoming them. The Hebrew writer said, “Let us go on to perfection.” At times, we may need some help in seeing the importance of that effort.
We must picture hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment.
To be a Christian means that we are continuing to grow. Never content with the progress we’ve made so far, we are always reaching for higher goals tomorrow. So we should not hesitate to say that the future will be the best of all.
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