Skip to main content

Reassurance about Heaven

Philippians 3:20 

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” 

One of the main things that pulled me away from God growing up was the fear of hell. I went to churches that embedded uncertainty about my afterlife, and through that fear, I pictured God to be a judge but not also a saviour.  When the root of our relationship with God is built on fear instead of love, it removes the intimacy God desires with us.  


For a long time, I positioned my relationship with God as if I was on thin ice. Fear made me feel like I had to earn my relationship with God. Adopting this fear mentality makes us believe that we must constantly ‘get right’ with God through our actions. The truth is, we have never ‘been right’ with God, in fact by our own works, nothing we can do can ever make us right with God. (Ephesians 2:8-9) We are not saved by our good works; we are saved by grace. Our good works are only evidence that we have been saved.  

Closely looking at the verse, heaven is not just a place, but an inheritance: an eternal intimacy with God. From the word “citizenship” it brings the idea of not having to work for it, rather something that is granted to you. On most cases, citizenship is something you are born into. Whether you are a British citizen, a Congolese citizen or a Somalian citizen, we hold our citizenship as a part of our identity. How much more for our eternal citizenship? For us, we often forget our identity and we embed them with things on this earth but let us embed our identity with things of the kingdom of God. Let us have certainty and reassurance that heaven is our destination, because someone has already granted us that citizenship: and that person is Jesus.  

Knowing this also doesn’t mean we abuse grace. We are saved by grace but let us not abuse it’s gift. If we have knowledge of the consequences of sin, and where it leads to, then why do we continually treat our lives like a game, where we respawn by grace because of our sin. Once we know, we carry the weight of choice and action, and if that choice and action doesn’t lead to repentance, then we should question the authenticity of our salvation.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Obedience: An obligation not a suggestion

John 14: 15   “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”   When thinking about the idea of Obedience, the first thing that comes to mind is probably parents , and honestly you wouldn’t be far off with that assumption. Ever had your Dad or your Mum ask you to do something? I’m sure everyone has, right? Well, Obedience would be doing the thing your parents asked you to do.   It probably sounds very simple : doing what you’ve been told. However, when we take that very same premise and apply it with God, it becomes much more complex. We tend to complicate what was just a simple instruction into a multitude of worries, fear and eventual passiveness. Why? When God asks us to do things, for some reason, we believe it’s our way or the highway . Stemming from a form of rebellion, we believe that somehow, we know more than God, that somehow, we have this life figured out.   There are two potential reasons as to why we may be disobedient when it comes to God: for...
Post a Comment
Read more

An Omnipresent God

Hebrews 13:8   “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”   Usually with these blogs I tend to write quite broadly: trying to speak and relate to pretty much everyone . However, today I w anted to speak to a particular type of person: a person who has trust issues. I’m not talking about having trust issues with people, alt hough it would be very normal if this was the case, I’m talking about having trust issues with God.   When I say trust issues with God, I’m not saying you reject his character or existence, but rather you are rejecting his nature of being Omnipresent. When we see this word being used it’s usually from a geographical perspective but very rarely is it talked about from a time perspective.   Let me tell you a quick story about how God convicted me this week, and what influenced this blog today. I was walking back home physically, but in my mind, I was working overtime: stressing about my finances and budgeting. During that time...
Post a Comment
Read more

Identity built through Christ

John 1:12    “ Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed his name, he gave the right to become children of God”   Identity is always something I have struggled with. I believed that if I did not act a certain way with certain people I would not be accepted. I built my identity on the perception of others: letting other people's opinion of me dictate my value as a person. One thing I didn’t realise was that my value had already been written , something established long before I was even born. My value: your value, is built through Jesus. And so, we can’t let the opinion of others affect us, whether positive or negative because our identity is not built on the perception of others but of God. We are all seen di fferently by different people , maybe your someone’s brother or sister, a mum or a dad, or something else. The most common association t o our identity is our names. It’s what our friends , teachers and family refer to us by: an associat...
Post a Comment
Read more