Living Heavenward: Embracing Faith, Hope & Love Every Day

Philippians 3:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

We are being called heavenward in all things.

Jesus spoke quite a bit about Heaven, but not in the sense of our final destination. He also spoke of Heaven on Earth right now. When Christ came to Earth, He said the Kingdom is at hand (Matthew 4:17). It is advancing forcefully, and violent men must take hold of it (Matthew 11:12). The qualities of our final prize are those things that are eternal: faith, love, and hope. And the Holy Spirit, the still small voice of God within us, calls us heavenward every waking moment.

It is an invitation to a better way, a more glorious moment. He bids us enter into eternity by reframing each moment from an eternal perspective, allowing ourselves to be guided by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. The enemy has set many traps to distract us from the eternal to the temporal. He presses our perception to only notice what is right before us. And the enemy does not invite, but coerces, manipulates, and deceives us to shift our thoughts away from the eternal. Not only is Heaven on Earth, but Hell is also.

Accepting the invitation to Heaven on Earth, we choose to step into faith, hope, and love regardless of what the enemy has placed before our eyes. He distracts with immediate pleasure, but we must have faith that God’s way is better. This faith steps into Heaven, avoiding Hell’s trap. He distracts with suffering, but we must hold tight to hope —the mental posture that God will soon appear and turn what the enemy meant for evil into something good. 

Perhaps, the greatest distraction of the enemy is found in our human interactions. He tempts us to adopt a reciprocal approach to our relationships. He presses us toward vengeance when others have hurt us. He provides the receptacle, deep and wide, to hold on to our grudges, never forgetting what others have done. But if we accept Christ’s invitation into the eternal, we will hold tighter to love than hurt. We will continue to love even when they have stopped. And even if they don’t change their attitude toward us, we are not brought down to the bitterness of Hell, but as we accept the invitation to Heaven, His eternal peace directs us.

Prayer: Lord, help me, strengthen me to grip tightly your Heaven as I live in this world through faith, hope, and love. Amen.