I don’t know anybody who was given a time-share weekend in heaven before having to return to their everyday life.
Some might think that a “try it first” experience would boost the number of people choosing to become Christians.
It might increase the demand for the blessings of heaven but it also would diminish the role of faith, wouldn’t it?
For it wouldn’t be faith that sustained the demand, but rather “sight.”
If we say we have to experience the rewards of faith before demonstrating the commitment of faith, then how are we different than the couple who want to shack up for awhile before they get married?
Listen, choosing Christ and anticipating life in heaven after our death is part of godly faith.
There is no need for trusting God and believing in His promises if our minimum level of compliance isn’t based on hope.
Why do I need to trust somebody to give me something if I already have it?
Why do I need to hope that somebody will show up to help me if they’re already standing by my side?
In 2 Corinthians 5:7, the Apostle Paul wrote these words: “We live by faith, not by sight.”
He was speaking specifically to the promised, glorious blessings of heaven that awaited him in the next life. He talked about the stress of living on earth as a Christian and how his body “groans” because of the burdens he faced with spiritual persecution and perhaps physical aging.
Paul had faith that God would give him a heavenly body prepared by God Himself.
Aware of God’s miraculous power and sometimes used as a vessel for such, Paul had faith that the same God who had blessed him in earthly ways would bless him in eternal ways, even though Paul hadn’t been given a three-day test drive on the streets of gold.
Check out these words from 2 Cor. 4:16 – 5:1…
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”
We will live with greater G force — God’s force — when our faith is shaped by what is in our hopes, not what is in our hands.
Let’s trust God more when it comes to obeying God in advance of His blessing us.
He’ll gain the glory He deserves and — when the time is right — we’ll gain the blessings we desire.
As always, I love you
Martin
