Chosen For Heaven

Joshua Van Oostrom

When you are saved by grace through faith, you only have one end. I thank God that death is not our end, but a new beginning. Our end is eternity with our Creator. I believe that if Christians grasp this concept fully, they will live for Christ and not just with Christ.

The entire concept of time is limited to the seconds we spend here on earth. After that, poof. Time becomes meaningless to us. In the scope of eternity, our life here on earth is extremely short; but yet, we can have an eternal impact. When we shift our desires to align with God’s desires, our limited time becomes extraordinarily useful and important to the Kingdom of God.

One of our biggest restrictions is our bodies. Specifically, the desire to create short-termed gratification for our bodies. This ties very closely with our thoughts and feelings. We cannot live with God when we are constantly thinking of our bodies. Our minds were created with the ability to experience pleasure and joy. I believe God made us this way so we can cherish resting in His perfect peace and love experiencing His incredible creation. God made us to enjoy the things that are so obviously for our ultimate good. However, the pleasure-manufacturer in our mind, also known as dopamine, can be utterly abused. This is where body, mind, and feelings can deceive almost everyone. What our body craves can result in continuous thoughts which in turn create positive or negative feelings toward our situation. So many Christians participate in this unhealthy process, without noticing it for what it is. It is a trap designed by the enemy.

People live their lives so focused on trying not to sin, that they can miss the point of their existence. Sadly, something so simple as God’s purpose for our creation gets lost in it all. For Christians, something more dangerous than outward sin is inward sin. We can look at the world and see the outward sin of millions and think to ourselves, “Well, I don’t do that. So that proves I am a Christian.” This moral comparison is exactly what kept us from the truth before we were saved.

Inward sin begins with the body, but does not manifest itself in obvious ways. It is a searching to find contentment from anything else but God. It could be physical or mental. It is always self-focused and it often results in spiritual stagnation. This is a temporary thinking. It’s a “what do I need right now?” thinking instead of “what does God want from me right now?” This wrong thinking is a wall preventing us from seeing our purpose and our end. It results in us believing lies because we cannot focus on the truth. The truth we have read and know but are not living.

We cannot live for eternity and for our temporary wants. God is the breakthrough, Jesus is the Word of Life, and the Holy Spirit will show us where we are.

Bible Verses For You