April 19 – Where’s Your Heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1-4)

“Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.” (2 Corinthians 5:2)

IN WORD:
There is an impulse deep in our hearts for the things of heaven. God placed it there. He shaped us for eternity, and somewhere deep within us, we know that. We may have distorted that impulse when our first parents ate the forbidden fruit or when we deliberately sinned against God, but we still have it. We want heaven, and we want it now!
Have you noticed all the ways we try to get it? We look for heaven in lots of places — the spring catalogs, the vacation brochures, the real estate guides, the novels and movies that engross us, the satisfying relationships we pursue, the American dream we’re promised, and more. You name it, we’ve placed our hope in it. We welcome poor substitutes.
Perhaps we thought of our personal goals as an innocent search for satisfaction, but they went deeper than that. We were driven by our impulses for the eternal kingdom, trying to satisfy our hearts with things that don’t measure up. That’s why we always want more, no matter how much we have. Everything we think will satisfy us won’t — not in the long run. Eternal impulses are not content with temporal treasures. Our hope is like an itch; it is cured with a divine balm, not an impatient scratch.

IN DEED:
Where have you sought to secure your heaven? Even if you’ve placed your hope in the Kingdom of God, you still may be tempted to secure your kingdom by your own means. Have you insulated yourself in the most comfortable neighborhoods, padded your accounts with the most comfortable margins, gotten away from it all with the most comfortable respites, and escaped into the most comfortable fantasies? You may be entertaining false hopes. You may have cultivated your own parallel false kingdom next to the eternal Kingdom of God.
Resist that urge. God has called us into a relationship with Him. Let that be your treasure. Handle the things of this world loosely. Look for heaven where heaven really is.

“Heaven will be the perfection we have always longed for.”
-Billy Graham-