Vision for Eternity

Devotional

To be a true person of vision is to live this life in light of eternity. Without a real revelation of eternity, this life will be marked by hopelessness and a sense of aimless wandering. Only when our destination comes into view can we rightly see the circumstances strewn along the journey of this life.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” To look to eternity requires us to trust. Our minds are finite. In the only world we’ve ever known, life is marked by a beginning and end, by birth and death. But in Scripture we discover that God is the Maker of life and the Conquerer of death. We discover that in Jesus we are promised eternal life in unhindered, unveiled communion with our Creator.

To live with vision for eternity is to trust that things are not as they will be and to surrender the entirety of this life with hope for the next. When we live seeking satisfaction from the things of the world, we live as if heaven didn’t exist and God didn’t usher in his kingdom through Jesus. The things of this world only have value in the Giver of all good gifts. So our possessions, relationships, and work only have value here because they are a shadow of what is to come when all things are made new.

Having vision for eternity should lead us to create boundaries around everything in this life. It should lead us to a lifestyle of surrender that our hearts might never become tied to that which is fleeting and can never fully satisfy. It should lead us to a lifestyle of fully enjoying the things God has given us, all the while knowing the things of this life are merely a shadow in comparison to what is to come.

Do you feel tied to the things of your life today? Do you feel as if your possessions, relationships, and work owns you rather than you enjoying them to the glory of God? Are you seeking to find total satisfaction in the things of the world, or are you finding peace in the hope of heaven? Take time today in guided prayer to surrender your life again to Jesus. Allow God to cut away any ties you have to that which is chaining your heart to this world. And find abundant joy and peace in the freedom that comes from living in light of eternity.