WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013
“Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.”
—Hebrews 11:10
We think so much about the here and now, but God thinks more about the by and by. We need to remember that heaven is being prepared for us, and we are being prepared for heaven.
As Randy Alcorn wrote, “We live between Eden and the new earth, pulled toward what we once were and what we yet will be.”
Heaven is not some mysterious, atmospheric realm of smoke and mirrors. Heaven is a real place for real people, where we will do real things. Hebrews 11:9 says that Abraham, “even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.”
Abraham did this because he “was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God (verse 10). Abraham recognized that this world was not really his home and that his real home was eternal, built by God.
Deep down inside, I hope we realize that too. Our real home is heaven and the new earth that is to come. Heaven is the real place that Abraham was searching for, and it is the place we are all searching for, really. The Bible says that God has placed eternity in our hearts (see Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Putting it in context, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” That is what God wants in our lives. He wants eternal weight.
The things that we go through in life are not just preparing us for the opportunities God will reveal during our time on this earth. God is also preparing us for heaven.
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Daniel 1-2; Revelation 16
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Used by permission from Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie, PO Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.
