The Treasure Our Hope Holds….

The one thing that Christians do that the world doesn’t do is focus on the future. The Bible is clear on this. The world focuses on the “now” with respect for the past. Christians focus on the “future” (Heaven) with respect for the past. Think about that for a minute! Do you ever find yourself reminiscing about the past, yesteryear? Nostalgia brings a smile to our faces for a short while, but when focused on too long, it only leads to depression, because we can’t go back. Our job as believers is to focus on the future. It will motivate us to do good, and help us through the hard times too. Christianity looks back (remembering what God has done), then focuses on the future (what God promises to do) with resolve. It’s how we are supposed to live. You can’t live in the past, it’s impossible. Remember, we are strangers passing through. This earth is not our home, it’s only temporary. Jesus said, “it’s easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into Heaven”. What this means is that rich people have their comforts here and now. Heaven to them is a foreign concept. It scares them because they do not know what it will be like. They don’t want to go there out of fear that it won’t be as comfortable as they are now. For the poor, Heaven is far greater than the “now”. Anything beats this present suffering. They long to go there because it will be a relief. This looking forward is what brings comfort to the poor, destitute, and all who don’t have the comforts of the rich. The rich think of Heaven as losing what they have here on earth. The poor see it as gaining everything they don’t have. Hold every loosely, and look forward to what God has in store for us in eternity. That’s what “forward living” is all about. It’s the treasure our Hope holds.

13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13-16