September 6, 2022
“No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”—1 Corinthians 2:9
What a breathtaking verse! Do you see what it says? Heaven is beyond our imagination. We cannot envision it. At our most creative moment, at our deepest thought, at our highest level, we still cannot fathom eternity.
Try this. Imagine a perfect world. Whatever that means to you, imagine it. Does that mean peace? Then envision absolute tranquility. Does a perfect world imply joy? Then create your highest happiness. Will a perfect world have love? If so, ponder a place where love has no bounds.
Whatever heaven means to you, imagine it. Get it firmly fixed in your mind. Delight in it. Dream about it. Long for it. And then smile as the Father reminds you, No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.
Anything you imagine is inadequate. Anything anyone imagines is inadequate. No one has come close. No one.
Think of all the songs about heaven. All the artists’ portrayals. All the lessons preached, poems written, and chapters drafted. When it comes to describing heaven, we are all happy failures. It’s beyond us. …
And imagine seeing God. Finally, to gaze in the face of your Father. To feel the Father’s gaze upon you. Neither will ever cease.
He will do what he promised he would do. I will make all things new, he promised. I will restore what was taken. I will restore your years drooped on crutches and trapped in wheelchairs. I will restore the smiles faded by hurt. I will replay the symphonies unheard by deaf ears and the sunsets unseen by blind eyes.
The mute will sing. The poor will feast. The wounds will heal. I will make all things new. I will restore all things. The child snatched by disease will run to your arms. The freedom lost to oppression will dance in your heart. The peace of a pure heart will be my gift to you.
I will make all things new. New hope. New faith. And most of all new Love. The Love of which all other loves speak. The Love before which all other loves pale. The Love you have sought in a thousand ports in a thousand nights ... this Love of mine, will be yours.1—Max Lucado2
“Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.’”—Revelation 14:13
The Bible promises that in Heaven we will receive a glorious inheritance—the inheritance of eternal life in all its fullness.
Can you imagine answering a knock on your door to find someone notifying you that you had inherited a kingdom? It is inconceivable. But for the believer in Jesus, this is exactly what happens when you open the door of your heart and invite Christ to come inside and dwell within you. He promises to share the wealth of His riches, power, and glory with you.
Inheritance is a biblical truth (mentioned over two hundred times) that will be fulfilled completely in Heaven. God has chosen us to be His own inheritance—His very own people.3 He has also chosen “our inheritance for us.”4 Heirloom chests can burn in a few minutes, but we will receive “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you.”5
God told the priests of Israel that they would not inherit any land—for He would be their inheritance.6 This was looking forward to the New Testament promise that Christ’s church—a holy priesthood—would inherit eternal life in Christ.
The book of Ephesians speaks specifically about the inheritance we can look forward to in Heaven: the “unsearchable riches” of God’s grace7; “his glorious riches”8; and “his incomparably great power.”9 The things we inherit on earth may be a great blessing—or a terrible curse. Countless lives have been ruined by riches left to irresponsible heirs. However, as children of the King, our inheritance will not spoil, nor will it spoil us.
Let’s give “thanks to the Father, who has qualified [us] to share in the inheritance.”10 What a wonderful promise!—Billy Graham11
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”—Revelation 21:4
According to Scripture, Heaven is a far better place than what is here on earth. Heaven is a very large place. It has jeweled walls, jeweled foundations, and jeweled gates. Heaven is a place of the purest light and unfettered liberty.
Important also to consider is the quality of life that is offered in Heaven. The Scripture is very forthcoming when it assures us that Heaven is and will be a place where there will not be any tears. What will it be like to live where there is no more sorrow? Many people, like me, live in constant pain and discomfort, but in Heaven there will be no more of it.
And, according to the biblical info, there will be no more death. … According to the Psalmist, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” But, the most comforting consideration of all is that Heaven is where Jesus Christ is. He said, “I go to prepare a place for you … that where I am you may be also.”
According to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:19, without the hope of Heaven, we would be “people most miserable.” Every day, physical death overcomes people dear and precious to us. But, the Lord provides the sure hope of Heaven—for our comfort.—Ron Branch
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”—Hebrews 11:13
There is a wonderful scripture about this in the third chapter of Philippians that says, “But what things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ.” Paul was saying that such things were just nothing, he counted them loss! They weren’t worth anything compared to what he received in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul went on to say: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”12
We’re here on business for the King, and our real citizenship isn’t here. You cannot be true to that heavenly citizenship and have so much time absorbed with the affairs of this world, even with the present world crises. If we really believe our citizenship is in heaven we’ll not become so attached to this world or absorbed in every little news about its tragic condition. Because its fears drive us to tension, its troubles cause us loss of time and sleep, time that we could spend in prayer.
Dearly beloved, there are so many of the world to tend to the world’s affairs. Our time and strength and money must be cast on the side of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the side of things eternal. Our attitude as a citizen of heaven is to be detached from this world, not attached to it! Not to be conformed to this world, though we be well informed, but we are to be transformed by our living in the things that are eternal and in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and living in obedience to His Word.13
We must have a deep realization that we are living for eternity and not for time, and our heavenly citizenship can never be put in a secondary place. Eternal things call so earnestly today because the Lord is needing every soldier, and that soldier cannot entangle himself in the things of this world. We can’t thoughtlessly give ourselves to the temporal because we are defeated spiritually by all this hubbub about us. If we could but see the events of life framed in the ultimate results that they lead to, what a change there would be in our lives and in our sense of values. God help us that we might keep the divine perspective clear!
Philippians 3:20 states that our citizenship is in heaven, “from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Are you looking for Him and for His coming as He has promised? Or are you looking at TV and the news and all these other things so much that your affections are not set upon the things that are above, but they are set upon the things that are upon the earth?14
Hebrews 13:14 states, “We have here no continuing city, but we look for one to come.” Won’t you accept the words of these scriptures and believe that in the Lord Jesus Christ you can have a supply of His strength, power, and wisdom, to take an active part in His service, in the affairs of the heavenly kingdom where your real citizenship is?
God’s Word says, “He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.”15 That’s where your life is!—Virginia Brandt Berg
Published on Anchor September 2022. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
Music by Michael Dooley.
1 See Revelation 21:5.
3 Psalm 33:12.
4 Psalm 47:4.
5 1 Peter 1:4.
6 Ezekiel 44:28.
7 Ephesians 3:8.
8 Ephesians 3:16.
9 Ephesians 1:19.
10 Colossians 1:12.
11 The Heaven Answer Book (Harper Collins, 2012).
12 Philippians 3:20–21 NKJV.
13 Romans 12:2.
14 Colossians 3:2.
15 John 5:24.
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