To Encourage You

Hebrews 11:12 “Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”

As you go through life and plan your day, how far forward is your gaze fixed?  For example, perhaps you have an early morning appointment.  If so, you may have set your alarm, laid out your clothes, thought about breakfast, and made sure certain other things would be done so that you could make that appointment on time.  Your actions prior to the time of the appointment were affected by what you knew was coming around the bend.  We do this type of thing all the time.  We have to, or we would never be ready for what’s coming.  But do you know that God would have us to fix our eyes not just on what’s to come today as we go about our business, but on what’s to come far beyond that. He would have us fix our eyes on eternity as we do what we do today. 

In Colossians 1, Paul talked about what he called “the hope of glory.”  He was referring to the wonderful hope that all believers have because of what Christ has done in their lives and the promises He has given them about their future in heaven.  It was this wonderful hope that spurred Paul on to share the message of the gospel. It was because of the awesome reality that he knew was coming for all who followed Jesus that he spent so much time “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:28-29).  Paul always had one eye on eternity as he went about doing what he did each and every day. 

In the verse above from Hebrews 11 we have the example of Abraham. This man, like Paul, had his sights set on eternity as he lived his life from day to day.  God had promised him a son, and that from that son a nation would rise.  Abraham believed God, and Isaac was born to him; however, he never saw the rest of God’s promise, a promise that was fulfilled far beyond what Abraham could have understood.  We are told that everyone who has ever believed the gospel and been born into the family of God is a child of Abraham by faith.  His faith was a model for the faithful, and the same faith Abraham had is the faith by which every believer since Abraham’s time has come into the family of God. 

What astonishment Abraham must experience now in the house of God as he is witness to God’s faithfulness to His great promise.  Likewise, we all should have an eye on eternity as we go about our day, for in eternity the full glory to which such faith leads  will be revealed. All believers have been told that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).  And it is those who love Him that obey Him. It’s an obedience that springs from faith.  It is the faithful that heed God’s admonition to, “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). 

It is this eye on eternity that should affect everything we do, including the most basic activities of life. This is why believers have been told that “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).  For you see, the results of that which we do today with the eye of faith will, one day not too far in the future, be fully revealed in the light of the infinite glory of God.