To Encourage You

Colossians 3:2 “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

Have you ever heard the statement “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good?”  In that the instructions above are given to Christians, who are supposed to be heavenly minded, I doubt the “heavenly minded” quote actually applies to very many.  The problem with most people, apparently, is that we’re not heavenly minded enough – or perhaps not heavenly minded at all.  For the believer, Heaven should be where all his or her affections lie.  It’s where Jesus is. It’s where the Father is.  It’s where God is perfectly glorified and honored by everyone. It’s where there is no sin.  It’s where a believer is looking forward to being forever.  It’s the place where there is no sickness, no death, no tears, no fear, no enemy, no hatred, no darkness, no tragedies, and no pain.  It‘s a place where there’s no homicide, suicide, genocide, infanticide, matricide or patricide.  It’s the place where we will someday appear with Christ in glory (Colossians 3:4). 

Meanwhile, to be fixated on “things that are on the earth” is to be focused on things that are passing away.  All the things – the money, work, leisure activities, time spent with friends and family – that occupy our time on earth, can be viewed in one of two ways: either with a purely earthly focus, or with a heavenly one.  The believer is commanded that “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” i.e., while we live on this earth, we can have our eyes on eternity in every single aspect of our life here.  The alternative is to live our lives with a “here and now” view, i.e., “Let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die” (Luke 12:19, I Corinthians 15:32). 

Yes, tomorrow we may die.  But God’s perfect wisdom is to live for the day after tomorrow, which will also come sooner, perhaps, than we think.