April 30 I Monday

1 Kings 8-9

Luke 21:1-19

 

“For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling…”

—2 Corinthians 5:4

 

There is no doubt we are living in a turbulent world both on a global scale and on the domestic front. But there is another place Jesus talks about. On the night of His arrest, He said to His disciples, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3). As Christians, there is another place we are going to…heaven. 

Solomon makes a profound statement when he says that God has placed eternity into our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). This is an inherent longing within us that wants to go on living forever, and this is God’s will and intent for us. Solomon acknowledges a universal truth that counteracts the one of dying. Inside all of us is a need to connect with something greater outside of ourselves that transcends our mortality. Proverbs 12:28 tells us, “In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality.” Jesus Christ is our righteousness and in Him we have a permanent home in heaven. That is not only something to look forward to, but to get excited about.

In his book Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis writes:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not mean that the universe is a fraud, but that earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, only to arouse it, to suggest and provoke the real thing.”

The real thing is God Himself, and God created us for Himself, not just for the average three score years and ten, but to go on living forever with Him. In this earthly life, our bodies are merely the tents we live in, subject to frailty, loss and illness. Like Paul, we may be groaning on the inside, longing for our heavenly dwelling, but as Christians we live on this earth in the love, strength and wisdom of Christ for His agenda in our lives and in this world. And we do it not only for the great reward of heaven, but because we deeply share the heart of Christ.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for the incredible promise of an everlasting home with You. In the meantime, I pray You use me to further Your work in this world. Thank You, Lord.


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