“Use every part of your body to give glory back to God.” — 1 Corinthians 6:20
So often we’re caught up in the throes of life and forget to contemplate how God wants to use each of us. This begs the question: How can each of us use our talents to glorify God in view of eternity?
Life here on earth is a place of learning for each of us, and our purpose here is in preparation for what is yet to come in our heavenly home.
Starting in childhood, we have all heard of several misconceptions about heaven – heaven is a place where we float like air on clouds and wear white robes, strum harps, put our feet up all day long, and eat chocolate (sounds amazing for sure!). Heaven is none of these things though, and its description is layered throughout the Holy Bible. So, what WILL we do for eternity once we finally are in heaven?
Each of us will serve while in heaven. This means we will work while we are there. We will do both pleasurable and enjoyable service items, whose purpose of which will be to honor God. This work will be normal and never grow old. Our time on earth here is a place of learning and preparation for our work and service in heaven. To say it differently, we are each here to honor and glorify God the Father in all we do and say, at all times, and in all things.
Imagine if throughout our lives we said, “I’m what’s important” or “I’ll make life about me”? Then, after this life we arrive at our heavenly home and say, “Okay God, I want to serve on your ‘A team’ so take me off the bench and let me serve You now that I’m here.” I’m guessing God would say to any of us using this approach, “What serving skills did you foster and develop while on earth?”
God wants us to understand that right now is our chance to prepare for the real thing yet to come in heaven. The moment we pass away we only have two things in our possession:
- Our character or our soul (who we are)
- Our skillsets learned over a lifetime.
We don’t take any of our things with us or our money or anything tangible when we transition to heaven.
Now is a great time to remind ourselves not to waste our time on things we can’t and won’t be taking with us to heaven, and instead spend our time and energy on developing our service skills and building our character to be more like Jesus.
Are we using our talents for God and to His glory?
Or are we using all our talents on ourselves?
God wants each of us to serve Him well here on earth, and forever in heaven – for His glory.
