As a Christian heaven and eternal life should be as real to us as our life here on planet Earth. One of the most wonderful promises in all of Scripture can be found in the Gospel of John, for we read: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3). When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, heaven and eternal life became part of the complete package.
I don’t know about you but I am super excited to know with certainty that when the Lord calls me home I will spend eternity with Him in heaven. Before I share why I am so excited about my future home I would like to tell you why I believe in the reality of eternal life with Jesus.
First, I believe that the Bible is God’s authoritative revelation of everything He wants us to know about Himself and life. I believe the Bible is totally true in everything it talks about. The Bible is historically accurate, scientifically spot on, prophetically always true, and uniquely transformational. And since I have put my total trust in the Bible, I believe all of its doctrines, with heaven and eternal life being one of its most wonderful.
Second, I believe that I have met the entrance requirements to get into heaven. (John 3:16) gives us the entrance requirement: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Third, since everything Jesus teaches, we can take to the bank, we can have complete confidence in the reality of heaven since He spends so much time talking about it. While Jesus doesn’t give us too vivid a description of what heaven will be like He does spend a lot of time telling us how to get there.
And fourth, without the possibility of eternal life, we make Christ a liar and the greatest deceiver of all time for He tells us to trust Him for our eternal destiny. And if we can’t trust Jesus then who can we trust. Certainly not man – his track record has proven this. I cast my lot with Jesus and the Bible. Jesus has transformed my life here on earth and I believe with all my heart that He will take me with Him to heaven when I die.
Now that you know why I believe in heaven and eternal life I pray that the following five reasons will show you why I so look forward to eternity.
Reason 1 – Joy and bliss beyond description
The Apostle Paul knew that the absence of all suffering in heaven would lead to total joy in heaven when he shared (Romans 8:18) with us: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” This glory in us will be sheer bliss and will cause us never to dwell on our past sufferings while here on earth.
Reason 2 – An eternal weight of glory awaits us
(2 Corinthians 4:17) presents us with a most incredible thought: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” I don’t know about you but I love to meditate on just how awesome and beautiful heaven will be. We know that the work we do here on earth for Christ will mean a rich storehouse of treasures in heaven or as the verse above shares will yield us an eternal weight of glory. Just what this means we will only be able to comprehend and experience when we get to heaven – I can’t wait!
Reason 3 – Brilliant luminosity
We know that there is no night in heaven for we read in (Revelation 22:5): “There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” Thus, the brilliant light of the Lord will light up the sky eternally and all darkness will have to flee.
Reason 4 – The Tree of Life will be there
I have always wanted to know how eating from the tree of life, in the Garden of Eden, would give Adam and Eve immortality. Unfortunately, when they sinned they forfeited the right to eat from this special tree and it disappears from the earth and is never seen again. However, this amazing tree will reappear and be available to us in heaven for (Revelation 2:7) says: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” I can only imagine how delightful to the eye and delicious to the taste these fruits from this special tree will be.
Reason 5 – We will worship and fellowship with Jesus for all eternity
Imagine we will see Jesus face to face and enjoy the greatest privilege in the entire universe – to worship our Creator! Not only that but we will have intimate fellowship with Him for all of eternity.
I am so looking forward to spending my days in endless bliss with my Savior. I pray that this devotion will serve to whet your appetite for your seat at the great banquet table in heaven.
Today’s devotion opens by saying, “As a Christian heaven and eternal life should be as real to us as our life here on planet Earth.” The reason it will be “as real” is because our eternal life will be “on planet earth.” Heaven is our temporary home until our eternity begins with the new heaven and earth, where Christ in his physical body will bring us in our physical bodies home to our inheritance, earth Matt. 5:5.
A study of the original language shows us that even the mansions are temporary dwellings where we await our return trip to our permanent dwelling, the new earth. The earth groans for that day when the last enemy of Christ will be made the final part of his footstool and the time of the restitution of all things will happen. The kingdom will be here as in heaven and all our preparational labors for the restored earth will not be in vain. “And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.”
In the meantime, Christ rules from the throne at the right hand of the Father in heaven but He longs for the day He will return to His restored birthplace spoken of since the world began Acts 3:21.
When we have this perspective we can properly sing the old song, “Heaven is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through.” Until the day of our return, we groan, the Spirit groans, and all creation groans. Then we can get started on fulfilling God’s original plan for us to have dominion and subdue the earth but this time without thistle and thorn.
I’ll be in Heaven too, Curt…waiting and looking for you.
Elaine