Before doing this study, please read the one-minute introduction When We'll Be Home at Last. It explains that Christians must realize that the earth is not our home. We know that God is preparing our home in heaven and our time on earth is temporary (Hebrews 11:13-16).
What insights can we gain from the following passages? How can they help us deal with difficulties and challenges during our time here on earth?
1. Hebrews 11:13-16: All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11 is often called the "Hall of Faith" because it talks of those throughout history who have stood strong for the Lord despite their worldly difficulties, persecution, and opposition. I encourage you to prayerfully go through Hebrews 11, and let the examples encourage you to stand strong and live faithfully.
2. Romans 8:18-25: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Just like Hebrews 11, this passage encourages us to have an "eternal perspective" on life. When we consider the small amount of time we struggle here on earth, it strengthens us for the battle.
3. Revelation 21:1-4: Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
This is the future of all who have made Christ their Lord and Savior!
copyright 2016, Gail Burton Purath, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, edited and updated 2023
This is inspiring and reassuring!
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