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Day 32 – Set In EternityFriday August 24
She stood overwhelmed by the devastation around her. In a few short moments, the fire had destroyed the most precious things of their life: their wedding album, the kids’ favorite toys, her wedding dress, the baby pictures.
“Oh God,” she cried out, “we’ve lost everything that really mattered”.
Gently but firmly the Lord spoke to her: “You haven’t lost anything. The most precious things in your life are eternal and nothing can take them away from you.”
Precious: of great value or high 2 : highly esteemed or cherished. (Merriam Webster)
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
For most of us when we read this verse we think of our material possessions - houses, cars, clothes, things – and we can easily see that these have no eternal value. But what about less tangible possessions – like our reputation or our dignity? These are just as much “earthly treasures” that many of us hold onto quite dearly. So when God asks us to do something that might be embarrassing or make us look or feel foolish or uncomfortable, we shrink back. Why? Because simply put, we place a higher value on our reputation or on our dignity, than the treasure that will be stored up in heaven by our obedience to God’s word.
As God brings us to this season of establishing His kingdom on earth, one of the inalienable truths He wants to burn into our hearts and spirits is this: we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom and this world is not our home.
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for… All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:1-2; 13-16
It’s not easy to live as strangers – to always stick out. It’s much easier to just blend in with the crowd. This is the constant fight we face – the constant pull of our flesh that tries to tell us that we can find comfort and belonging in this world.
But God has set eternity in our hearts (Eccl 3:11) and it’s from the perspective of eternity He means us to live. Paul lived this way and that’s why he, who had gained much in the world of His day, could say with all sincerity:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:7-14
Heaven’s perspective and earth’s perspective are so different of what is precious.
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: 2 Peter 1:1
As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him- 1 Peter 2:4
Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 1 Peter 1:17-19
Jesus the Chief Cornerstone, His blood, His Word, our faith that has been given to us a gift – these are the truly precious treasures of our life that cannot ever be taken away from us.
A friend of ours was ministering to a woman who was in a time of deeply grieving the many losses she had suffered through her 30 plus years of ministry. Visions had been aborted, dreams had been crushed, so much labour and tears that were seemingly unfruitful. As this woman poured out her heart, our friend heard the Lord say: “Tell her that everything she has ever done for Me has not been in vain. There is not one thing that has died that has been done in My name. For everything done in My Name is eternal. It lives in the realm of the Spirit and can not be destroyed by moth or rust…or man! All that she birthed in the Spirit lives!”
When we live always mindful of our true citizenship in an eternal Kingdom, then we can live immune from the cares and disappointments of this world and its many challenges.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Today God is calling our hearts and our eyes heavenward – home. Let’s pray this prayer together:
God I thank you for the things in my life that are truly precious: your blood, your word, your love, my faith, my righteousness – all the eternal treasures that cannot be taken away. God I ask that you fill my consciousness with the eternity that you have set in my heart. Help me Lord to always set my eyes and heart on what is unseen and eternal so that the cares and worries of life that want to ensnare me and leave me earthbound will have no hold.
Let’s sing this song, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, and make it our prayer for today and always.
The Consecration Call Team
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus – Heather Clark – Continual
Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth Will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace 
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