Would you be happy if you had the best mind in the world? Would you be satisfied if you had the best body? Would you be fulfilled if your health, bank account and emotional state were better than anyone else's?
Do you want to be some combination of all the people you admire, having all their benefits with none of their weaknesses?
God has something in mind for us that is far more, exceedingly abundantly better than we could think or imagine.
Paul puts it like this: "And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." (Romans 8:23-25 ESV)
We hope for what we do not see! The genuine, biblical expectation of one who is in Christ is something better than anything or everything we've ever seen!
The Apostle John says it this way: "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." (1 John 3:2-3 ESV)
Let us not live in constant striving for goals that are less than God's! Let us not be constantly carried away in what we see -- wanting this and wanting that. Let us want for ourselves what God wants for us, which is far more than what we see.
Even Job, in the midst of his true despair, though oft times frustrated, confused and pained, was able to say, " For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!" (Job 19:25-27 ESV)
May God give us a vision and fresh hope in what we do not see, and fresh confidence that what is to come is better than what we currently see. Praise God, I believe it!
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