reasons to gaze upon heaven now.

reasons to gaze upon heaven now.

When I erase all my excuses, I am utterly convicted as to how seldom I think about heaven. For believers who have placed saving faith in Jesus Christ as LORD, heaven is home. There is no other home in comparison to heaven for the Christian. Some reasons have come to my mind as to why we should gaze upon heaven now.

First, we must gaze upon heaven now because heaven is the eternal home for every Christian. Second, we must gaze upon heaven now because this forces us to live heavenly-focused lives instead of earthly-focused lives (which is what Hollywood and most other aspects of culture point us to). Third, we must gaze upon heaven now because that will transform us as we live through, endure through, and triumph through trials, struggles, discouragements, and persecutions in this life. That trials are tough is not the issue; the issue, rather, is how the Christian endures and perseveres through the trial with a God-centered and a heavenly-centered focus. When these are in order, the trial is manageable—yes, even more, the trial is profitable to strengthen our faith to the greater glory of God!

Fourth, we must gaze upon heaven now because that will force us to not store up treasures on this earth but rather to store up lasting, eternal, and glorious treasures in heaven. We will become less consumed with our earthly houses here and become more enraptured in our eternal dwellings made by God Himself. Fifth, we must gaze upon heaven now because this will inevitably remind us of the cross of Jesus Christ and the blessed gospel of God. Indeed, the only reason the Christian may gaze expectantly on heaven is because of God’s grace and mercy in sending Jesus Christ to be the substitutionary sacrifice for sinners who place their faith and trust in Him. What a glorious reason to gaze upon heaven! For the cross and heaven to be daily gazed upon is to feed oneself with the insoluble nourishment from God Himself.

Sixth and finally, we must gaze upon heaven now because heaven is where the believer will meet his Savior, Redeemer, and Lord face to face. If there ought to ever exist in our hearts a lovesick passion or a longing to meet someone, it should be the Christians insatiable passion to meet Jesus Christ face to face—which will most certainly happen! As a wife expectantly waits for her husband to return home from a long journey to a distant land, so should the believer wait with an eager anticipation and an all-consuming passion for the blessed reunion with his King, Lord, Savior, and Friend.

May we live today—and every day—gazing upon heaven! Indeed, heaven is our home, not this earth. Let us live like Christians bound for glory, not Christians bound by this earth.