Look Ahead

“I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,” (Philippians 3:13).

This is the time of year when many people go off to some place away from home to rest and have some fun.  We call it vacation.  Let’s look at some similarities between vacation and the Christian life.

Our vacations are usually planned far in advance.  We first decide that we’re going to take a vacation and the place where we’ll go.  Then we make reservations for lodging and begin preparing for the trip and the stay away from home.  But there’s something else we do; we start looking forward to the day we actually leave.  We anticipate the wonderful time we’ll have and the place we’ll stay.  No matter what goes on in the time before vacation, we can look beyond it to a better time a coming.

Now, think about our lives.  We first realize we’re going to go someplace when we leave here and we decide we want to go to Heaven and not Hell.  So we get saved which gives us a reservation in Heaven and a very nice place to stay.  Next, we should begin making preparations. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” (Matthew 6:20).  And one very important thing to consider: Who will be going with you? Whether vacation and, especially Heaven, who will you be taking with you? Make sure your family is ready to go. And then, you can start looking forward to the day you actually leave.  We anticipate the wonderful time we’ll have and the place we’ll stay.  No matter what goes on in the time before we leave, we can look beyond it to that better time. Do you see?  If we are saved, then Heaven is our destination and we’re going there sometime in the future, maybe the near future.  We SHOULD be making preparations and we SHOULD be very excited with the anticipation of it and looking forward to it.  Think about how we anticipate vacations.  Think about how we anticipate Heaven.  Focus like Paul did.