“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.” C.S. Lewis
Do you ever have trouble focusing on the next world? When I stopped to think about this quote after seeing it recently, I realized that my thoughts are constantly filled with tasks, obligations, and responsibilities and I am in a race to get them accomplished. I see these activities as something to simply finish and mark off the list. I am easily distracted by what is going on around me.
Philippians 3: 20 says,
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
All that we have as Christians- our Father, our Savior, our home, and our inheritance- is in the next world. Do we keep an eternal view of our life and the actions and decisions we make each day?
While it is challenging to keep an eternal view in this present world, when we do, we are free from the fear and expectations that can hold us captive.
1 John 2:17 says,
“And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
Remember to think of the next world while you live out your day in the present world around you.