To Encourage You

Matthew 6:20 “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Do you ever think about heaven?  As we age, it’s something that we should think about more and more.  Do you wonder what it’s like, or does it seem so far-off that it’s difficult to even imagine? In John 13, Jesus said that He has gone to prepare a place for us, and that he would come again to receive us unto Himself so that where He is (i.e., in heaven) there we might be also.  The Bible tells us that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (I Corinthians 2:9).  Yet, God has told us a lot about heaven in his Word, and we can be sure that He has told us these things so that we would think about and anticipate them. 

God has told us that there are innumerable numbers of angels there.  Can you imagine what it must be like to see and hear these glorious beings?  It’s a place with no destruction, death, sorrow, pain, sickness, or sin. There is absolutely nothing negative there.  It’s a place of indescribable joy, peace, rest, knowledge, and glory.  Can you imagine seeing and speaking with Abraham, and David, and Paul, and Daniel, and every other believer who has ever walked on earth?  All of these things are true about heaven and so much more.  It will exceed anything we can possibly imagine, for our experience on earth and our ability to perceive anything in our experience, no matter how good, have all been terribly flawed by the fall and sin. 

Our bodies, though they will be our own flesh and blood will be so glorious and advanced beyond our current bodies that it will be like the comparison of seed to a tree that came from that seed (1 Corinthians 15:35-49). There won’t be any “old age” or Alzheimer’s, Downs syndrome, Lou Gehrig’s disease, or any other affliction that is so much a part and parcel of the current human experience that we name many of these maladies after some human being’s name.  Think about anyone you know who is disabled – perhaps someone that is blind, and wheelchair of bed-confined, who has perhaps never been able to speak one word, and then think about that same person as being of such a glorious nature that they will exceed the most gifted, handsome, beautiful, intelligent, strong person you have ever known.  That’s what it will be like for them in Heaven. 

Above all, heaven is where we will see Jesus. Can you imagine actually looking into the Creator’s eyes with your own eyes, that He personally created and listening to His actual voice with your own ears which He has also made?  Can you imagine standing before this “God in the flesh” from Whom all love, kindness, patience, joy, peace, and light emanates for He is the source of it all.

The Bible tells us to think about wonderful, beautiful, and glorious things in Philippians 4:8. Certainly the glories of heaven fit that bill.  Furthermore, in Colossians 3:2 we are told to “Set (our) minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”  Doesn’t it seem like a good thing to spend time thinking about such things instead of so many other things that are infinitely less?