Happiness is Not a Place, It's a Person
Where is “home?” God is Home.
“Real” estate is not “real.” It is like a motel room. This world is tangible but it is temporary. Set your affection on the Person of God Himself and you will enter into true happiness.
I often watch from inside my house as my grandchildren play on our playground. They scramble all over and around it. They push and shove for the best position on it.
I sit inside the house and watch them. Where I sit is the true home, not the playhouse. My home is secure, dry, and stable. Their playhouse is flimsy, unprotected, and tiny.
This earth, our real estate, all of our possessions, will one day be totally destroyed by fire. They are a playhouse compared to our eternal, secure home called “Heaven.”
Here are a few perspectives to keep your focus correct going into a New Year:
1. “Set your affection on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3: 2)
God must be your affection. There is nothing in the world to compare to His love. The riches of His mercy, kindness, compassion, and affection toward us will take us an eternity to enjoy.
2. “Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him” (Gen. 5: 24)
Enoch walked with God. He became totally detached from the world and infatuated, obsessed, and caught up with God Himself. God’s highest pleasure is for His people to be with Him eternally as a companion.
“Where is “home?” God is Home.
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3. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9)
This earth and the entire universe will be renovated by fire. A new heaven and new earth will become the eternal location of the new Jerusalem. We will stand in His presence, basking in His eternal joy, radiance, and oversight.
4. “This day, you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43)
These words were spoken by Jesus to the thief on the cross. Paul said that he was “caught up to the third heaven…to Paradise.” (2 Cor. 12:3)
Paradise is not a place on earth. As beautiful as the places are I have visited all over the world, they are not Paradise. Paradise is to be “with Him.”
I am not a Christian just to avoid hell. I don’t want earth, either! Paradise for me is an eternity with Christ.
Focus your attention on two things:
1. LOOK FORWARD to your eternal, unshakeable final home with the Lord. Give the rest of your days to doing WHATEVER He put you on earth to accomplish.
2. LOOK BEHIND TO leaving your entire spiritual, financial, and earthly accomplishments to your children and family. Elijah dropped his mantle on to Elijah as the chariot of fire brought him to eternity.
After all, this world is, at it’s very best, just a playhouse.