Daily Devotional

Today, we need to live each day with “great expectation.”  We have a living hope, because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  Because of what Christ has done for us, we have “an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you.”  Our eternal salvation is ready to be revealed at any moment.  The Apostle Peter is reminding us of this truth so that we might focus our mind on it, no matter what may be happening in our lives on any given day.

Often, we become so wrapped up in the affairs of everyday life, that we do not spend much time thinking about heaven and eternity.  Eternity often is something we have considered to be unrelated to life as we live it.  But in reality, it has great bearing on all that we do.  The Scriptures have much to say about living each day with the proper perspective on what is eternal.
 
Sadly, we often have not trained ourselves to fix our minds on the future world.  Complicating the whole matter is that this present world is so tangible.  We can touch it, see it and enjoy it.  But we also may be distracted by what we can touch, see and enjoy.  We must consciously choose to listen to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and train our hearts to see beyond this world.

Often, we find that heaven and eternity are a missing emphasis in today’s Christianity.  We have focused on meeting earth-side needs.  No wonder many think that heaven and eternity is just a P.S. on the Christian experience rather than the real heart of it.
Stop to think for a moment.  Today, we have received only a small portion of what God will give us in salvation.  When we trusted in Christ as our Savior, He gave us the first installment of our salvation.  God renewed our minds so that we would have the capacity to think His thoughts.  Without Christ and the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives, we could not understand spiritual things.  “But the person who is not a Christian does not understand these words from the Holy Spirit. He thinks they are foolish. He cannot understand them because he does not have the Holy Spirit to help him understand.” (1Corinthians 2:14 NLT) Through the work of the Holy Spirit, Scriptures now come alive to us, and we can understand spiritual truth.  In salvation the Holy Spirit has given us the capacity to think God type thoughts since God has given us the mind of Christ.  “For who has the thoughts of the Lord? Who can tell Him what to do? But we have the thoughts (mind) of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16 NLT) Today we need to use our renewed mind to focus on those things that are spiritual and eternal.  Those things that are “beyond the reach of change and decay.”  This tangible world will someday end and only what is eternal will go on forever.  As our minds focus on what is eternal, we will live our lives moment by moment for the glory of the Lord.

But there is coming a day when the salvation we possess will also change our soul and body.  Peter reveals that the end of our faith is the eternal plan for the salvation of our souls.  (1 Peter 1:9) We often do not understand why we do the things we do and why we feel the way we do.  Someday all this will be changed for the glory of God.  Our feelings, motives, and intentions will all be changed to bring honor and glory to our Lord.
Our bodies have not yet received the salvation God is going to give us.  According to 1 John 3:1-3, when Christ returns our bodies will be changed to be like Christ.  As we age, our bodies slowly fade and decay.  Our current bodies are not made for eternity.  There is coming a day when God will give us a glorified body that has no more sickness, pain, or limitations.  We should look forward to that day when we will spend eternity in the presence of our Lord.  We then will experience all the joys of heaven and a relationship with the Lord that He has planned since the foundation of the world.

If eternity and heaven are not at the center of our lives, then we will have only a limited view of the fullness of life and the salvation that God has prepared for us.  We need to recognize today the importance of heaven and eternity.  They should be the focus of our existence and we should not allow this present world to sidetrack us.  Our minds need to be fixed on the future promises of the Lord.

Keeping eternity in view as a habit of our hearts is not just something that would be nice, but it is necessary.  A statement I have found to be so true is, “A heaven that is dimly lit results in a life poorly lived.”

Prayer:  Lord, help me to live each day with heaven in view.  I want my focus to be on You and the future You have prepared for me.  Thank you, Lord, for the great hope we have in You.  Amen

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