“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
An Inconceivable Future
A beloved grandmother, born in 1910, lived to be 95 years old. She was blessed with a sound mind and good health right up to the end of her life. One of her favorite pastimes was to reflect on how the world had changed since she was a child.
Imagine going through the changes that took place in the last 100 years. Just think of the typical home. There was no indoor plumbing or electricity. That means no indoor bathroom, no electric refrigerator, no microwave, no television, no Internet or telephone. If we have a bad storm and are without these basic services for a few hours, we don't know what to do.
We have also shrunk our world with technology. 150 years ago it was considered impossible to go around the world in 80 days. Now one can jet around the world in under 48 hours. A letter took months to reach a remote location, now we can send an email that arrives in just seconds. 100 years ago no one could have imagined how the world would change.
In our verse above, the writer is talking about an even more incomprehensible change. He is writing about a spiritual change that was going to take place between God and his people.
To understand the change, we need to explore mankind's spiritual reality. Because of sin, one could say that we live in the spiritual dark ages. Just watch the news or read the headlines. There is crime and hurt and hate. It seems that society is going from bad to worse with no hope in sight for the future.
But this sin-problem also affects each one of us personally. Love for God is replaced with self-centeredness. Concern for others with selfishness. The result is a broken relationship with God and strained relationships with others. Besides the day-to-day pain we experience on account of such behavior, God himself pronounces the punishment of death and hell.
In such a bleak spiritual reality God promises an inconceivably bright future. It all starts at the cross of Jesus. It is there that God shocked the world by substituting his Son as the sacrifice for sinful mankind. Who does that? Who makes his perfect Son pay for the wrongs of others? No one but a God who does what we cannot imagine.
Three days later Jesus rose from the dead. Perhaps we have heard and read this truth in the Bible so many times that it seems commonplace. But on the first Easter morning words like confused, bewildered, and even unbelieving were used used to describe Jesus' followers who tried to comprehend something that was beyond their ability to fathom: Jesus rose from the dead! And as if that weren't enough, he promises that he will raise you from the dead one day too.
As this resurrection reality starts to sink in, remember also that Jesus changes your identity. Instead of connecting you to your past sinful behavior, he connects you to himself by faith. Now God knows you as his child. You are a child of God washed with the blood of Jesus. What a dramatic change!
And the future God has prepared for those who love him is inconceivably wonderful. He gives glimpses of it. Try to imagine a body that is no longer crippled by sin—no aches, no pains, no sickness and no death. Try to imagine life with no hunger or thirst, no fighting, no conflict and no sin. We don't know all the details about the future which God has prepared for us through Christ. God simply tells us that it is bright and it is now beyond our ability to fathom. So until God shows us what is to come, we hold on to Jesus and his promises.
Prayer:Lord, you have given me a bright future by giving me a certain hope in Jesus. Keep me going through difficult days by reminding me of what is to come. Amen.
The focus of devotions on Thursdays and Fridays in February is Truth for Today.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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