You Were Made to Last Forever
By Rick Warren
“For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.” Hebrews 13:14 (NLT)
Heaven is the place God is preparing for his family.
When God started thinking up Earth, he also started thinking up heaven. Why? Because he knew you were not meant to live here forever. This is not all there is!
That’s a good thing—because you don’t want to live in an imperfect place forever. You want to live in a perfect place that was made just for you, as a member of God’s family.
God’s plan for eternity is such an amazing expression of his love. The Bible tells us that God created the entire universe because he wanted a family that would live with him forever. It wasn’t because he was lonely—because God is fulfilled in himself. He wanted to express his love by creating human beings in his image, so that he could adopt us into his family, and we could live with him forever.
Ephesians 1:5 says, “[God’s] unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to!” (TLB).
There’s a word for God’s family: church. The only thing in this world that’s going to last is the church—the people who have chosen to be part of God’s family in faith and obedience.
As the Bible says, “We have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay” (1 Peter 1:4 NLT).
Because you were made to last forever, you can choose to spend eternity in one of two places: heaven or hell.
When you make Jesus the Lord of your life, you accept your inheritance as God’s child and your forever home in heaven. That inheritance can never be taken away from you! It is God’s amazing gift to you. It changes not just where you spend eternity but how you live life now.
The Bible says in Hebrews 13:14, “For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come” (NLT).
Once you become part of God’s family, there’s a whole lot more to life than just the here and now. You realize that this world really is not your home. You’re just passing through!
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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