Wonderful Things to Come

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As we anticipate the coming year with hope, people talk about great expectations. Some are founded upon realistic goals, but some are unfounded based upon unrealistic wishes. Regardless, the turning of the calendar brings with it an anticipation of something better.

 

The Bible is clear about our “earnest expectation” that is founded upon the certainty of God’s word, thereby calling it our “hope.” In other words, it’s something that is certainly positively true, it’s just not yet. Consider this regarding a glorious future:

1 Corinthians 2:9 (ESV) — 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

That wonderful promise is a quotation from Isaiah.

Isaiah 64:4 (ESV) — 4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

What does God have in store for those who love Him? First, by way of importance, we must realize that it is beyond comprehension. It goes beyond our best thought, or what we have ever seen in this life. It even goes beyond your loftiest imagination. We would do well to investigate other superlatives,

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV) — 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Romans 8:18 (ESV) — 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Ephesians 2:5–7 (ESV) — 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:17 (ESV) — 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

When you are talking about God’s blessing, you are talking about Him, so we have to watch ourselves that we do not bring down what God has made known, simply realizing everything about Him is beyond our understanding. We are not required to be able to explain things, simply to believe it, knowing He and His ways are beyond us. To try to bring down or make Him like us is simply the wrong way to approach the “beyond comprehension.”

Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV) — 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Psalm 50:21 (ESV) — 21 These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

What awaits us on the other side?

1 John 3:1–2 (ESV) — 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 (ESV) — 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Psalm 16:11 (ESV) — 11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Revelation 21:1–5 (ESV) — 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

2 Peter 3:11–13 (ESV) — 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. ‘

That is all beyond our highest thought or imagination. What is it like? Beyond anything we have ever thought, seen, or dreamed. The descriptions in the Bible tell us that what God has for us is on a different realm, and it’s so good that our thinking about it gives us great hope and expectation.

Philippians 3:20–21 (ESV) — 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Hope for the coming year, no matter how lofty does not exceed the great expectation of the children of God. As you fill your mind with anticipation of how things might be if all goes well, take time to fill your mind and heart with what will be according to God’s word, which reminds us it’s better than can be described.

Godspeed,

Bob Brubaker, Pastor

Christ Community Presbyterian Church

Clearwater, FL

 

Check out our podcast, The PowerBreak Podcast, wherever you download podcasts or from our website: www.bobbrubaker.com.

 

 

 

 

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