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Too Busy

I believe that every believer has in the back of their mind the notion that when they die they will go to heaven, or at least they expect to see him soon. But I don’t know how many of these believers live in a daily expectation and readiness of that reality. I don’t know how many have that burning desire to see him appear in the sky.

The passage of scripture we are looking at today seems to teach that every one of us, on a daily basis need to live with that burning desire. Look at 1 Thess. 1:10:

to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come…

Wait a Minute

The word “wait” is a word that is still used in modern greek today and it stresses a certain eagerness in this waiting. This waiting or looking forward to also implies a state of readiness. Unfortunately, many christians are not really thinking about heaven, they are too focused on the here and the now, too focused on the material, too caught up with life and the business of raising a family or working one or two jobs.

Explain yourself

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with doing these things. I think it is important to get equipped and taught about finances and how to do well and be able to take care ourselves, but those teachings fail to connect the dots between the here and the there – the already but the not yet – earth and heaven. It is almost as if those two world do not connect for many people. I believe that everything we do on this side of heaven affects the other side of earth. So we need to prepare our minds for action so that the things on this side of heaven do not deceive and blind us to the things on the other side of earth.

Important questions

So as we go about our daily activities on this side of heaven we need to ask questions like these:

• how eager am I about heaven?
• how expectant am I about heaven?
• how ready am I about heaven?
• how much do I want heaven?
• how much do I think about being the Lord?
• how much does heaven affect the way I live now
• how much does heaven affect my priorities here and now?
• do I want heaven when life is good on this side of heaven or only when life is bad or when evil seems to prevail?
• is it something I will think about when I get old and on your dying bed or something that concerns me now – young with the future before me?

The bible encourages us the set our mind on things above, invest our lives, our talents, time and treasures on eternal things, prepare ourselves for heaven, encourage one another about heaven, and wait for heaven… in other word let heaven consume your every thought… let it consume you very existence.

Let me leave you with the following passage as a concluding thought… please spread the word!

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is before us (Heb. 12:1)… These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they want a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city (Heb. 11:13-16)…

Further Reading:

Philippians 3:13; Philippians 3:14; John 17:24; 2 Timothy 1:12; Philippians 1:6; 1 Corinthians 9:24; 1 Corinthians 9:25; Hebrews 12:1; Hebrews 12:2

 As part of a series in 1 & 2 Thessalonians