Eternity in Our Hearts

Sunday night Scott and I were blessed to spend some time with three couples who are very dear friends. We ate together, and then we spent some time reading out of Ephesians. We all feel like we can easily share what is on our hearts whenever we are together, and each of us had a great deal to discuss. It is a safe place.

One of the guys had begun and new job and expressed that it is hard for he and his wife to trust that God will take care of them financially. He also admitted that they both felt like they were at a spiritual low. One of the girls was going to have surgery the next day and we all prayed over her and her family. One of the guys confessed that he has struggled greatly over the past several years with whether God was calling him to a different role-- should he be in the mission field instead of making good money in the financial world. One of the girls admitted that she struggled with really knowing what God wanted her to do with her life.

Much more was shared about our own interpretations of the text from Ephesians 1. What does it mean to live through the power of the Spirit? Why do we not tap into this power instead of relying on our own strength-- this ultimately leaves us empty and burned-out. How would we live our lives differently if we truly believed that our citizenship was in heaven and not here on earth?
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Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people--free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth. It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free--signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life. That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the Christians, I couldn't stop thanking God for you--every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask--ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory--to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him--endless energy, boundless strength!
All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.

This text hits so closely to home for me-- I just wish that I could fully allow it to transform my life.

Almost every person I know is struggling right now with trying to figure out how God can best use him/her. Almost every person I know right now is struggling with feeling spiritually empty and unfulfilled.

In Ecclesiastes 3:11, Solomon makes an interesting observation:

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

God has placed eternity in our hearts! That has to be why we get so restless here-- it is the eternal homing device that God placed inside us that longs to be where He is... We can never truly be at home or comfortable here. So, maybe in a strange way, the emptiness and dissatisfaction we feel is good-- it reminds us that if we rely on the things of this world or allow the external conditions we encounter to affect us, we will always be disappointed and anxious.

If only we could make full use of the Holy Spirit God has placed within each of us "for the praise of His glory." If only we believed that this same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us! And, that He is able to do more than we ask or imagine through this Power that is at work within us! If only we could trust that heaven awaits us and that frees us to live lives of reckless abandon here for Him-- free from fear!

Lord, forgive us for allowing the struggles and trivialities of this world to blind us from you and our eternal destiny. Help us to see the power of Your spirit at work in our lives! Help us to be faithful to You in the many small day-to-day opportunities you place at our feet us each day, so that when You call we will be ready to serve you in a BIG way! Continue to discipline us, Father. Amen.