Our Heavenly Dwelling

Daily Reading: 2 Corinthians 4-5

Scripture Focus: For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. (2 Corinthians 5.1-2)

Devotional Thought: I've noticed something lately.  My body isn't working quite as well as it did before.  When I was a young man, I used to swing all three of my daughters in a blanket.  They were little of course, but not that little!  Now, I’m having difficulty swinging my granddaughters one at a time in the blanket.  I'm just not as strong, physically.  And, no way is my mind as sharp as my three daughters who are so skilled at their jobs.  I know that one day, the body and mind I have been given will finally just stop working altogether.

I suppose that’s why we are “groaning” now.  We are experiencing the destruction of our bodies.  And the older we get, the louder the groans!   You should hear me when I try to get in and out of that little convertible Lana and I drive!

But, I have “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens!”  Just as God "knit me together in my mother's womb," he will fashion a new body for me.  And, that one won’t wear out!  Aren’t you glad that Jesus went to prepare a place for us?  He prepared a place for us, not just a state, and certainly not a mystic union with God where we are swallowed up in the divine consciousness.  We will not be disembodied spirits floating in a space-less, timeless existence. The Bible teaches that heaven is a real, physical place.

One day we will lay aside our burdens and enter into our eternal dwelling with God.  All sickness and disease, darkness and death will be behind us forever.  Praise God!

Prayer: Even though I am "groaning" in this earthly tent, O Lord, one day I'm going to lay it aside and put on my heavenly dwelling.  Thank you for that promise!  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 115.9-13

9 O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.

10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.

11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.

12 The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;

13 he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great.