Would you like to see what your future holds? Are you eager to know the answers to your prayers and the course your life will take? The fact that we have dreams and ambitions and make plans for the future indicates we’re very invested in our future. It’s why we work to accomplish goals, save money for a future need or desire, raise children, invest in friends, care for the earth, and help strangers in need. If our future and that of our loved ones on earth is so dear to us, how much more should we long for our life in heaven when all things are made new?
We live in this present age but are closer than we think to the next era of our life, heaven. As we’ve been unpacking what the bible actually has to say about heaven we’ve learned the answers to many of our questions about our future. When believers in Jesus die, our bodies go to the ground but our souls and spirits are immediately with God in heaven. Heaven is described as an amazing place where we will interact with those who’ve gone before us and with Jesus himself. Can you imagine? But at the same time, our loved ones remain on earth until they die or until they are “raptured” to heaven by Jesus. Work for peace, but understand there will be great sorrow on earth as plagues, cataclysmic disasters, and wars abound. The good news is that God wins and we win with him. Christ himself will reign on earth for 1000 years and those who trusted him during the end times will enjoy his favor. At the end of this time Satan will be allowed once again to have influence for a short while on earth and some will choose to follow him. Can you believe it? God will pass judgment on everyone according to what he has chosen to believe and follow. And then, the city of Jerusalem, the new heaven, will descend upon the new earth. That is when God will “wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4
Hasn’t this been God’s plan from the very beginning? To redeem his people and restore them to perfect fellowship with him, and to restore his created earth to its original design? God’s plan is to make all things new in your life now and forever. He offers complete and everlasting redemption for all who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, those “adopted” children who will gain the full inheritance of his blessings, the same ones he wants you to enjoy forever. And some of those blessings are for now. They’re “hidden” in plain sight for all who look for them. They’re found by being still before God, by listening for his voice which speaks through his Word, the bible. They’re found in making time for others and attending to their needs. They’re found by a heart that increasing learns to be thankful and content. And sometimes, the most profound blessings are hidden in the deepest sorrows of our lives, for it’s there we’re most open to seeing God’s sustaining grace at work in us. For this reason, we shouldn’t be too quick to pray away sorrow without first finding what God has for us in it. What blessings are hidden by your busy schedule today? I hope you find them.
If you trust fully in Jesus, your eternal future is one of redemption and restoration, all things made new and good. But don’t miss out on the redemptive power of Jesus to work miracles in your life right now. Today is the day to allow him to make you one who is not overcome by trouble but is instead an overcomer, through the power of his Spirit in you.
Live fully. Live well, my friends.
