I am a very visual person. I learn by seeing or reading much more than by hearing about something. I have to see it!

God has been turning my thoughts much more toward heaven in the past few months as I have 4th stage Prostate Cancer. In reading about faith in the faith chapter of Hebrews 11, it is striking how God commends the faith of those who were looking forward to the fulfillment of unseen promises! Moses chose to be mistreated “with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was LOOKING to the reward”. Heb. 11:27

In other words, looking to the promises of God, the UNSEEN, transformed his life! I loved reading in the NLT this past week. It says in Col. 3:1. 2 “Set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth.” Again, the purpose of this is that your present life on earth would be TRANSFORMED. The transformation is to make us less earthly minded and more heavenly minded, because God tells us that our real home and our real citizenship is in heaven!

In addition, God tells us that our future inheritance is “imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept In heaven for you”. 1 Peter 1:4. Clearly, God wants to motivate us to think about this, knowing how focused we are on what we can see, on the everyday issues. Sometimes, I think I am more affected by the latest news than I am by God’s promises!

Hebrews 11 teaches that the saints who were motivated by God’s promises did so by FAITH. This is hard! We are so impacted by multiple sources of information every day we scarcely have time to stop and think about God’s promises .

Affliction focuses us on the fact that our “outer self is wasting away”. Clearly, God wants us to keep our eyes “not on the things that are see, but on the things that are unseen. for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal”. 2 Cor. 4:18

So, let’s consciously lift our eyes to heaven, to Christ, to our inheritance, to the place of our citizenship and as we do, our lives will become more like HIS life.

Terry