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Introduction
Fixing Our Eyes on the Unseen
Do you have a life verse? Mine is 2 Corinthians 4:18, which is posted on our ministry website and at the end of every e-mail I send:
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (niv)
What does Scripture mean when it tells us to fix our eyes on what we can’t even see? How do we begin to do that?
Even though as Christians we affirm the reality of the spiritual realm, sometimes we succumb to the naturalistic assumption that what we see is real and what we don’t see isn’t. Many people conclude that God can’t be real because we can’t see Him. And Heaven can’t be real because we can’t see it. But we must recognize our blindness. The blind must take by faith that there are stars in the sky. If they depend on their ability to see, they will conclude there are no stars.
For many people, including many believers, Heaven is a mysterious word describing a place they don’t understand and therefore don’t look forward to. We will one day be delivered from the blindness that obscures the light of God’s world. In the meantime, here in what C. S. Lewis called the Shadowlands, we must remind ourselves what Scripture tells us about the life to come. What we otherwise could not have known about Heaven, “God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10). God tells us about our eternal home in His Word, not so we can shrug our shoulders and remain ignorant, but because He wants us to anticipate what awaits us and those we love, and because it has the power to transform the way we live today.
Life on Earth matters, not because it’s the only life we have but precisely because it isn’t—it’s the beginning of a life that will continue without end. It’s the precursor of life on the New Earth. Eternal life doesn’t begin when we die; it has already begun. With eternity in view, nearly any honest activity—whether building a shed, driving a bus, pruning trees, changing diapers, or caring for a patient—can be an investment in God’s kingdom.
God is eternal. His Place is eternal. His Word is eternal. His people are eternal. Center your life around God, His Place, His Word, and His people, and reach out to those eternal souls who desperately long for His person and His place. Then no matter what you do for a living, your days here will make a profound difference for eternity and you will be fulfilling the biblical admonition to fix your eyes on what is unseen.
This book includes ninety daily devotionals on a variety of topics related to living each day purposefully with an eternal perspective. I hope these readings will encourage you to live with eternity in mind as you follow Jesus with all your heart.
—Randy Alcorn
Day 1
Living for the Line
When we live with eternity in view, even the tasks of washing dishes and mowing lawns become an investment in God’s plan.
The people who change lives are the ones who point us away from the world’s short-term perspective to God’s long-term perspective. Life on Earth is a dot, a brief window of opportunity; life in Heaven (and ultimately on the New Earth) is a line going out from that dot for eternity. If we’re smart, we’ll live not for the dot but for the line.
When we view our short today in light of eternity’s long tomorrow (to use A. W. Tozer’s expression), even the little choices we make become tremendously important. After death we will never have another chance to share Christ with one who can be saved, to give a cup of water to the thirsty, to serve our church. No wonder Scripture commands us, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2, niv).
From childhood most of us learn to stifle our thirst for the eternal, replacing it with the pursuit of the temporal. But when we live with eternity in view, we’ll do everything with a transformed perspective, not only preaching and witnessing but also washing dishes and mowing lawns. Almost any honest activity can be an eternal contribution, an investment in God’s eternal plan.
Perspectives from God’s Word
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).
“And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42).
Perspectives from God’s People
“Let no one apologize for the powerful emphasis Christianity lays upon the doctrine of the world to come. Right there lies its immense superiority to everything else within the whole sphere of human thought or experience.… We do well to think of the long tomorrow.” —A. W. Tozer
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.” —C. S. Lewis
For more: Read the blog post “Six Eternal Truths to Remember Each Day”: epm.org/6truths
Introduction
Fixing Our Eyes on the Unseen
Do you have a life verse? Mine is 2 Corinthians 4:18, which is posted on our ministry website and at the end of every e-mail I send:
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (niv)
What does Scripture mean when it tells us to fix our eyes on what we can’t even see? How do we begin to do that?
Even though as Christians we affirm the reality of the spiritual realm, sometimes we succumb to the naturalistic assumption that what we see is real and what we don’t see isn’t. Many people conclude that God can’t be real because we can’t see Him. And Heaven can’t be real because we can’t see it. But we must recognize our blindness. The blind must take by faith that there are stars in the sky. If they depend on their ability to see, they will conclude there are no stars.
For many people, including many believers, Heaven is a mysterious word describing a place they don’t understand and therefore don’t look forward to. We will one day be delivered from the blindness that obscures the light of God’s world. In the meantime, here in what C. S. Lewis called the Shadowlands, we must remind ourselves what Scripture tells us about the life to come. What we otherwise could not have known about Heaven, “God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:10). God tells us about our eternal home in His Word, not so we can shrug our shoulders and remain ignorant, but because He wants us to anticipate what awaits us and those we love, and because it has the power to transform the way we live today.
Life on Earth matters, not because it’s the only life we have but precisely because it isn’t—it’s the beginning of a life that will continue without end. It’s the precursor of life on the New Earth. Eternal life doesn’t begin when we die; it has already begun. With eternity in view, nearly any honest activity—whether building a shed, driving a bus, pruning trees, changing diapers, or caring for a patient—can be an investment in God’s kingdom.
God is eternal. His Place is eternal. His Word is eternal. His people are eternal. Center your life around God, His Place, His Word, and His people, and reach out to those eternal souls who desperately long for His person and His place. Then no matter what you do for a living, your days here will make a profound difference for eternity and you will be fulfilling the biblical admonition to fix your eyes on what is unseen.
This book includes ninety daily devotionals on a variety of topics related to living each day purposefully with an eternal perspective. I hope these readings will encourage you to live with eternity in mind as you follow Jesus with all your heart.
—Randy Alcorn
Day 1
Living for the Line
When we live with eternity in view, even the tasks of washing dishes and mowing lawns become an investment in God’s plan.
The people who change lives are the ones who point us away from the world’s short-term perspective to God’s long-term perspective. Life on Earth is a dot, a brief window of opportunity; life in Heaven (and ultimately on the New Earth) is a line going out from that dot for eternity. If we’re smart, we’ll live not for the dot but for the line.
When we view our short today in light of eternity’s long tomorrow (to use A. W. Tozer’s expression), even the little choices we make become tremendously important. After death we will never have another chance to share Christ with one who can be saved, to give a cup of water to the thirsty, to serve our church. No wonder Scripture commands us, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2, niv).
From childhood most of us learn to stifle our thirst for the eternal, replacing it with the pursuit of the temporal. But when we live with eternity in view, we’ll do everything with a transformed perspective, not only preaching and witnessing but also washing dishes and mowing lawns. Almost any honest activity can be an eternal contribution, an investment in God’s eternal plan.
Perspectives from God’s Word
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).
“And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42).
Perspectives from God’s People
“Let no one apologize for the powerful emphasis Christianity lays upon the doctrine of the world to come. Right there lies its immense superiority to everything else within the whole sphere of human thought or experience.… We do well to think of the long tomorrow.” —A. W. Tozer
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.” —C. S. Lewis
For more: Read the blog post “Six Eternal Truths to Remember Each Day”: epm.org/6truths
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