Thursday, June 30, 2016

Our Eternal Destiny

Clear Glass Pitcher With Water and Strawberry





Life is full of trials and opposition. We come out of one trial and slide right into another one, which is just waiting to engulf us in discouragement, loss and often physical, mental, emotional or financial ruin.

Jesus may send us into a trial, but He is right there with us - sleeping in the same boat or walking out to us on the choppy waves. He draws us close to Himself and calms the raging seas.

He sends us into the storm to prove our faith as genuine and to give us opportunities to praise, glorify and honor Him through it all. He refines our faith as gold in the smelter's pot (1 Peter 1:7).

As we look at life from God's perspective, rather than our lowly human viewpoint, He showers us with continual revelations of His love, care and provision.

His eternal plan will bring every Born Again person, as well as nature back to Himself; and restore our union with Him such as Adam enjoyed in Paradise.

We abide in Him through Christ in us and find our true identity in this personal relationship with the Trinity (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3-4). We have an eternal perspective and walk in God's will for our life.

We are spiritually alive through Christ in us, and we abide in Christ. Nothing can every pluck us out of His hand (John 10:28). He is eternal in the heavenly realm, and we dwell there with Him even now.

We possess eternal life by knowing God intimately and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3; 1 John 5:12). We will never die. Our last breath on earth is followed by our next breath in Heaven (John 11:25-26).

He gives us His divine life in exchange for our carnal one (1 John 5:11-12), His Spirit to guide us and His love to envelop us so that we may rejoice through every circumstance.

Prayer:
Father God, our glorified body will be ours when we see Jesus, either in eternity or when He returns for His Bride. Just as Jesus ate, spoke and was recognized by His disciples, we too will look very much like our self now. Our glorified body will be like His. He could walk through walls and rise into heaven unassisted. His new body was no longer subject to death.

We look forward to that immortal, resurrection body and to serving You for all of eternity. We cannot even fathom the wondrous world You prepared for us, which we know is even better than the majesty of this universe in all of its splendor. Remind us to keep a Kingdom focus through all of the trials we experience now here on earth and to look forward to spending eternity with You.

Thought for the Day:
As we live each day with eternal values and viewpoint, we mature spiritually until we come to the fullness of the stature of Christ in us. - Ephesians 4:13