1 Corinthians 2:9, New Living Translation

“No eye has seen, nor ear heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

I want to encourage us to continue to press on towards the goal! It’s easy to go through our daily routine and forget the depth of our salvation and what it truly means. Scripture tells us, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, and no mind has imagined what God has planned for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9, NLT)

What does heaven look like? What will our eternity look like? Scripture tells us it’s beyond our imagination what God has prepared for those who love Him. Though our imagination falls short, it still is wonderful to imagine, because we know it will be so much more! “’My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9, NLT)

It’s amazing how you can read scripture, and it jumps right off the page at you. The wheels in your head begin to turn, and you begin to imagine…at least that’s what happened to me. Let me share the scripture with you that got my wheels turning. It comes from 1 Peter 1:3-5 (NLT), “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefined, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by His power until you receive this Salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for you all to see.”

Right away, my mind began to wonder about the beauty and glory of God in His fullness in heaven. No more mixed emotions or confusion, no more sickness or death, no more feelings of guilt, shame, or inadequacy. These thoughts bring joy to me. But I think it’s necessary to think deeper. 

Christ gave up heaven's throne to die a horrible death that should have been ours. It wasn’t just the weight of a single individual, but the world. Every person who has lived and died, still living, or to come. Christ’s death bought our inheritance, Salvation, undefined and pure. 1 Peter 1:18-19 (NLT) tells us, “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lost their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”

Where was Christ seated after He overcame death, the grave, and hell? “This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come.” (Hebrews 1:19-21, NLT)

Christ perfected our salvation and now rules at the right hand of our Father! Our salvation is in the perfect Lamb of God which cannot be changed or defiled! Hebrews 13:8 (NLT) says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

This is all so beautiful! But what’s really beautiful is that God included us in this plan of salvation. To activate we must believe! If we believe that Christ is the living Son of God and we follow His commands, we receive this perfect salvation! When the day comes, we will see God in the fullness of His glory and experience our salvation in the fullness of God’s thoughts and ways! Oh, the glory we will behold! And what encouragement to press on towards the goal! Thank you, Jesus!