Looking Forward To Heaven

When we consider how often we are disappointed in life, we may wonder why we keep aspiring after important desires that often seem unfulfilled. Perhaps we are just beginning to realize that God has put eternity in our hearts and what we are longing for ultimately will really only be granted in heaven for those who are God’s people. A believer who comes to this realization may say to himself, “All that I longed for in life and never found will be found in heaven. So in reality what I was longing for was heaven.” Some of us may say, “Finally there I will have a Father like God that I did not have here below. I will have a Heavenly Bridegroom that I did not have here below. I will have a Heavenly Friend like I did not have here below. I will communion with another Person, the glorious Person of God. I will be welcomed and accepted! I will be delighted in. This is what I have longed for and it cannot be had to this degree, except in heaven so I was really longing for heaven, and did not always know it. I will be enabled finally to find my complete satisfaction in the Lord Jesus and be half -hearted no longer; I will not be so easily distracted and diverted any longer. I will not dishonor him ever again with my sin. I will never again foolishly believe the lies that are so suited to sinful desires remaining in me. I long to enter the final and most full stage of salvation! I long for heaven.”
 
Therefore we must keep looking forward to heaven. We must ask ourselves “Is my purpose in life, a purpose that is focused on eternity?” Paul shows us how he answered this question in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. “ Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
 
Paul realized that the sorrows and trials and afflictions that attended “his outward man perishing” as life moved on were really being used by God to prepare Him for a more wonderful eternity. He is saying that these afflictions are helpful to us. They make us more humble, bring us to renewed submission to God’s will. We learn to say again and again “nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.” These trials compel us to seek God as our comfort and portion. We draw nearer to God through them. Thus we are living more and more from the standpoint of eternity. How will this trial help me to live for eternity? God sees and delights to reward the faithfulness of his children during their trials. This will make heaven more glorious. Let us keep looking forward to heaven. This is a life of hope. This is a life that will persevere in faith in the midst of many disappointments. May God give us this grace, through the Lord Jesus Christ.