God Gives You Everything
1 Peter 1:5b-7 (The Message)
The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
“Pie in the sky when you die” is a scoffing summary by some about Christianity; the idea that we Christians believe you put up with all sorts of rubbish and miseries in this life because one day you’ll go to Heaven and everything will be better!
Well, there is some truth in this inadequate theology. One day we will pass from this life into a greater life, into the great adventure, where no shadow of pain or suffering will exist, where the presence of Jesus will be the Reality we have only glimpsed in this life. We will indeed ‘have it all – life healed and whole in the kingdom of Heaven. Yes!
But the Kingdom of Heaven is not just a future hope. Let’s reread a sentence from yesterday’s Scripture. Because Jesus rose from the dead ‘, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now.’
The future starts now! The Kingdom of Heaven is here now. Jesus came to win our salvation through his death and resurrection but he also spent three years establishing the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. Mark 1:15 says: ‘After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.”
To the seeker, Nicodemus, Jesus says ‘You need to be born again!’ You’ve been born once into the natural world but now by believing in me you can be reborn, this time into the kingdom of God.
You and I, believers in Jesus, live in the kingdom of God with all the resources of heaven at our disposal! The kingdom is not yet what it will be, but it’s still a pretty wonderful place to be!
Prayer: Holy Spirit, please develop genuine, persevering faith in me so I may live my life as one of your kingdom people.
Jill Rattle