Hope of Future Bliss

Finding Faith in Future Glory

BY BETHANY

Psalm 17.15As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

“A little patience can go a long way,” wrote Alexei Barrionuevo in the New York Times as the economy began showing signs of recovery in 2012. “At least that’s the lesson to be drawn from developers who have crawled from the ashes of the housing crisis – or from behind the barricades where they waited it out – to a Manhattan high-end market that has become a first-choice destination for the cash of the world’s wealthy.” 

Yet what has their patience really gained? They may be building bigger condos, but are they making better homes?

When David fled from his enemies, he fixed his eyes on his future home. “The Psalmist looks beyond the grave into another world;” Spurgeon once preached, “he overlooks the narrow deathbed where he has to sleep, and he says, ‘When I awake.’ How happy is that man who has an eye to the future.”

Spurgeon’s sermon, The Hope of Future Bliss, continues, “So says the Christian. I ask no royal pomp or fame now; I am prepared to wait … I want not a pitiful estate here – I will tarry till I get my domains in heaven, those broad and beautiful domains that God has provided for them that love him. Well content will I be to fold my arms and sit me down in the cottage, for I shall have a mansion of God, ‘a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’”

How do we know that we have such a home? Jesus promised his followers, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

PrayerLord, You are the ultimate developer. Not only have you created our current home out of nothingness by your mere word, you have also prepared an eternal home in glory for us. Therefore, let us not long for ultimate satisfaction in any earthly home. Instead, by your Spirit, fill us with patient endurance in this life so that we hope in your home, where we will be satisfied in your presence. Amen.